


Year One

by Catheeso



Series: The Catheeso Hogwarts AU [1]
Category: CJMind, Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Hogwarts AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 20,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23556880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catheeso/pseuds/Catheeso
Summary: WARNING: all of the people mentioned in this story are based on real people! This is not an original work with original characters, this is my own little self insert fanfic.“Yes, the rest of my family is Slytherin. I’m a Laffitte, we’re always Slytherin.”Kali shifted forwards, towards Carter, a glint in her eyes.“But what house do you want to be in?”
Relationships: Maybe??? - Relationship
Series: The Catheeso Hogwarts AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735267
Kudos: 1





	1. Train Time

**Author's Note:**

> The chapters in this fic will be wildly inconsistent and I’ll be posting the first couple chapters in bulk because I have already written a lot of this before deciding to put it on ao3!

Standing in front of the train sent Carter’s already anxiety-driven mind into overdrive. It’s really happening. It’s really happening and it’s really happening today. He bounced on his toes, chewing on his bottom lip.

“Quit fidgeting!” Alexa snapped, shoving him lightly. 

He quickly muttered an apology not before Dylan leaned on him.

“Another kid in the house. Really, they gotta stop letting you babies in here. You’re like, what, five?” 

“Oh hush,” Mom scolded gently, pushing Dylan off of Carter, “I remember when you were Carter’s age and you could hardly sit still. Don’t bash your brother because he’s nervous.”

“And how do you know Carter’s going into Slytherin?” Alexa sneered. “Kid could probably end up in Gryffindor.”

“You’re upset because you’re worried I’m gonna be getting better grades than you,” Carter retorted, stiffening slightly at the thought of him going into Gryffindor.

It was preposterous, really. All Laffites have always and will always be Slytherins. His siblings were Slytherins, his parents were Slytherins, Hell his cousins were Slytherins! Carter Laffitte was destined to be a Slytherin just by blood.

Alexa scowled and crossed her arms, a smile tugging at her lips. Dylan slowly got off of him and he returned to fidgeting uncomfortably.

The doors to the train hissed open and his two older siblings took the time to promptly leave as fast as possible, leaving him stuck there with Mom.

“You’ll be fine, honey.” Mom ruffled his hair with a smile. Carter tightly smiled before pulled his stuff onboard the train.

His cat hissed slightly as he walked up the steps and Carter took a moment to apologize to poor Mittens before looking wildly around for his siblings.

They had left him.

They had left him alone.

Breathing as evenly as possible, he wandered down the halls of the train before arriving at an empty car. He reluctantly sat down, pushing Mitten’s cage underneath his chair and sat quietly, holding his breath to see if any other student dared to come in.

A couple passed, some first-years like him, others older, but one quick look at his face bought him the family resemblance and nobody really felt too kind to the Slytherin family.

Finally, someone peeked into the train car and stared at him before confidently sitting down across from him. 

She had long dirty blonde hair tied into a low ponytail with blue eyes. Her black robes were slightly too small for her and she had glasses clipped to the front, either she didn’t need them or didn’t want to wear them. Her posture screamed confidence and as he stared at her she stared right back.

Another girl followed shortly behind, but she was much shyer than ponytail girl. Ginger hair reached down to her shoulders and freckles dotted her face. She sat next to ponytail girl and blinked at Carter before smiling slightly.

“The rest of the train cars were full,” ponytail girl said, resting her chin on her hand.

“Oh, uh, okay.”

Ginger stuck her hand out oddly, “Hi, I’m Kyla. Kyla Smith.”

Carter’s brow furrowed as he shook her hand. Smith? What kind of the last name was Smith? 

“Uh, Carter. Laffitte.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kyla smiled. Carter smiled hesitantly back before shifting his gaze over to ponytail girl.

She rolled her eyes and leaned back, crossing her arms.

“Kali Herrera.”

Okay, cool, never heard of them. Most likely not well-known families or muggleborns. His family would use much harsher terms for muggleborns, but he found them kind of rude.

“So, what house do you think you’ll be sorted into?” Carter was not good at conversations. His siblings knew that, yet left him to fend for himself. Carter, I repeat, is not good conversations.

“Ravenclaw, obviously,” Kali stated, grinning slightly. Cocky attitude.

“I don’t really care, but I would like to be in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.” Kyla tilted her head.

“Cool, I’ll be in Slytherin.”

“You say that like you know it to be one hundred percent true,” Kali said.

“You sound sure of you being in Ravenclaw,” Carter countered.

“Yeah, because I’m stupidly smart. What are you, stupidly ambitious?”

Carter raised an eyebrow, “you sure you’re not gonna get Slytherin?”

“Answer my question, Carter.” Kali stuck her tongue out.

“I have to be Slytherin.”

“Have to be?”

“Yes, the rest of my family is Slytherin. I’m a Laffitte, we’re always Slytherin.”

Kali shifted forwards, towards Carter, a glint in her eyes.

“But what house do you want to be in?”

Carter opened his mouth, then closed it. He opened his mouth again but closed it again. He repeated this several times, not knowing how to answer.

“Great job Kali, you broke him.”

Kali shrugged, grinning again as Carter struggled to form a response.

“I guess I’d like to be in Ravenclaw,” Carter said slowly. “Not that I really have a choice, but I’d like to be.”

“You always have a choice.” Kali leaned back once more.

“You’re quite odd,” Carter blurted out.

“Thank you!” Kali crossed her legs. Carter blinked, he had not intended that to be a compliment.

“Are you two muggleborn?” He asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Are you a pureblood?” Kali snapped back, her eyes getting that icy glint again. “Dumb question. All blood status does is determine a set status in society that you can’t push all because of ancestral judgment.”

“It’s not a dumb question. It helps to know blood status since it can determine wand wood and how naturally gifted you are at magic. I think that being naturally gifted at something is rubbish considering that you have to work to get actually good lest you fall behind, but knowing society’s placement can help you break the set society’s rules and further expand people’s mindsets if they see a pureblood performing worse than a muggleborn. 

“Also, asking about blood status can help you determine if you’re talking to a prick or not.”

Both kids on the other side of the train car blinked, a little stunned at Carter’s reaction. Inside, Carter was freaking out over the fact that he had said all of that without stuttering like some kind of wizard. Which, he was a wizard, but the point still stands that he didn’t know he could do that.

Kali’s shocked expression turned into a devious grin.

“Welcome to the Ravenclaw house, Laffitte.”


	2. Sorting

Standing in line waiting to get sorted was one of the most nerve-racking things he had ever experienced. Each breath felt like it wasn’t enough as he stood there, hands shaking so bad that he was pretty sure the kids next to him could feel it just through the air.

He knew he shouldn’t be nervous. He knew what he was going to get. No matter what Kali said to him, no matter how much they bantered on the train, Carter was going to get Slytherin. He had to get Slytherin. He couldn’t be ostracized by his family just because he somehow got Gryffindor.

Kali and Kyla had both agreed on the train that they would murder him if the sorting hat said he was Gryffindor (Kali immediately while Kyla hesitantly), but it didn’t make him any less nervous.

“Kali Herrera!” Professor McGonagall called out.

Kali shot a quick smile at where Carter and Kyla were standing before walking towards the hat. She sat down, but before the hat even touched her head it yelled out:

“Ravenclaw!”

The Ravenclaw table cheered fiercely as Kali stood up and, with a smug expression, walked over to the table where she was immediately greeted by rambunctious laughter from the older kids.

A couple of kids went next. Two Hufflepuffs, a Gryffindor, one kid who looked incredibly saltly to be placed in Slytherin. Then, Kyla’s name was called.

She stiffened next to Carter before walking up. The hat was placed carefully onto her head and everybody waited with bated breath. It only took a few moments, but to Carter, it took eons.

“Ravenclaw!” The hat finally called out and he could practically hear Kyla’s sigh of relief.

The crowd around him seemed to dwindle as more and more names were called. It felt like they were intentionally saving him for last. Until, finally...

“Carter Laffitte!”

Cheers from the Slytherin table echoed through the Great Hall while the rest of the houses remained silent. 

Carter walked up, his breathing uneven as he sat down on the chair, his knuckles white from gripping the sides.

“Interesting,” the hat muttered into his ear, “very interesting indeed.”

“Please pick Slytherin, please pick Slytherin,” he begged quietly.

“Slytherin you say?” The hat sounded curious.

“I can’t let my family down. I have to be Slytherin.”

“You sound more Hufflepuff than Slytherin. A brilliant mind suited towards Ravenclaw, too. Not brave enough for Gryffindor I’m afraid, but you’re not ambitious or cunning enough for Slytherin.”

His heart threatened to tear out of his chest. He had to be Slytherin!

“What do you want to be?”

“Slytherin! I want to be Slytherin!” Kali’s words echoed through his head but he pushed them aside. He was practically begging at this point.

“Are you sure?”

Carter’s breath hitched. No, he wasn’t, but he didn’t have a choice.

Right?

The hat grumbled, “very well.”

It then raised its voice for all to hear.

“RAVENCLAW!”

Carter’s body went numb. At some point the houses had started whispering to each other, wondering what was taking so long because he was a Laffitte, but now they were dead silent.

Because he was a Laffitte.

He was a Laffitte.

A Laffitte who was sorted into Ravenclaw.

Somewhere, over the loud tumbling of his thoughts, was muffled clapping as one person whooped excitedly for him, followed by another person clapping just a little quieter. He shook his head slightly and saw Kali standing up at the Ravenclaw table with Kyla, clapping her hands.

The hat was removed from his head as he shakily walked down the steps towards the Ravenclaw table, his nails digging into his palms so hard they threatened to draw blood.

The Ravenclaw table slowly started clapping, followed by the Hufflepuff table and Gryffindor table. The Slytherin table remained somewhat silent. 

He almost collapsed into his seat next to Kali as she used her extra two feet of height to lean on him (just like Dylan who was sitting over at the Slytherin table because he was a Laffitte who didn’t mess everything up-) while Kyla smiled kindly.

“So-“ Kali popped her lips- “you broke the rules. Ya broke the nonexistent rules that all Laffittes had to be Slytherins.”

“I did,” Carter hollowly agreed, his eyes blankly staring at the chicken on the plate in front of him. He had never seen food look so unappetizing.

“Welcome to Ravenclaw!” Kyla smiled weakly.

“Yeah.”


	3. Unpacking and Mittens

The other Ravenclaw boys in his dorm didn’t talk to him as he unpacked all his stuff. Mittens darted out of the kennel and under his bed, the fluffy black cat biting at him angrily when he tried to reach for her. Apparently she did not like being kept up in a cramped cage, who would’ve guessed.

Inside his suitcase were a bunch of robes and books, along with other school supplies. What caught his eye, though, was something his mom had probably slipped in last minute.

It was a stuffed animal of an owl, more specifically the family owl whom Carter had always adored, but what really caught his eye was the scarf around the stuffed animal’s neck. It was green and silver scarf. 

Carter glanced at the blue and bronze scarf sitting on the dresser next to his bed. He had been given the scarf by one of the prefects who had looked at him with such pity in her eyes that it made him physically sick. He wanted nothing more than to light it on fire now.

He glared at the stupid scarf with its stupid colours in this stupid dorm room with these stupid Ravenclaw kids. 

He was supposed to be surrounded by stupid Slytherin kids in the stupid Slytherin dorm and stupid green and silver colours. 

Mittens slinked out from underneath the bed and crawled on top, butting her head against Carter’s arm. He sighed and started petting her, her rumbling purrs soothing him. If nothing else, it was nice to have her here. 

He had gotten Mittens for his tenth birthday so they wouldn’t have to do last minute pet shopping when he finally turned eleven. They had the family barn owl, Tawny, but Alexa had her owl, KitKat, and Dylan had his owl, Pitcher. Mom had tried to get Carter to get his own owl, but Mittens had caught his eye and he begged his mom to let him get her.

She had thick black fur with amber eyes and white paws. He had immediately taken to the name “Mittens” and now it was the only thing she responded to. 

“At least you’re here,” he murmured over her purring, laying down on his bed. 

If anything, Mittens was a nice constant.


	4. Not All Slytherins are Jerks

The next few days were slow, to say the best. Kids were jumpy around the disgraced pureblood and Slytherins sneered at him where ever he went. Alexa had caught his eye the second day from across the hallway as he walked to his Charms class, but she had turned away, guilt flashing in her eyes. 

The only escapes he had were Kali, Kyla, and his actual classes. Kali and Kyla were nice and the only friends he had. There were two Gryffindors who he shared flying and potions with and they were nice, but Kali and Kyla were almost always there with him and it was quite comforting. Kali was brilliant and she had dry, sarcastic humour that was often coupled with a lot of hidden self-loathing. He never pointed that out, though. Kyla was nice, if not a little boring, but she was also fun to hang out with.

The classes themselves were great. He loved Charms the most, but Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration were also quite fun. History of Magic and Astronomy made him want to tear his hair out but Kali’s sarcastic comments made it slightly more bearable. Herbology was alright. He had always like plants and the outdoors but the crying baby creature things made his stomach churn. He was good at Potions, but he could always see Snape giving him a dirty look out of the corner of his eye which he made sure to return. 

“Maybe Snape just doesn’t like the fact that you weren’t placed in Slytherin,” Kyla said as they ate dinner. Carter poked half-heartedly at his mashed potatoes before shrugging.

“Dylan and Alexa never really liked him and apparently Dylan wreaked some havoc his first couple of years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was snotty ‘bout my family.”

“Well that sucks considering you’re actually good at his class unlike the Gryffindors we’re paired with,” Kali snorted, elbowing him in the side.

“I don’t know, Micah’s alright.” 

“Speak for yourself, Carter. I’m stuck with Sheridan.” Both Carter and Kyla winced at the name. Tommy (Brian) Sheridan was an American student who somehow got into Hogwarts just because his great aunt was magic. He strode around acting like he owned the place and was extremely close-minded. He once said that gay people didn’t deserve rights and both Kyla and Kali had to restrain Carter before he could straight-up deck the snotty American kid.

“I got paired with Christian, he’s pretty good,” Kyla said. Carter looked away from the Gryffindor table and back at Kyla at the sound of one of his dorm mate’s names. He was alright, but he snored. A lot. 

“You’re just saying that ‘cause you got googly eyes for him,” Kali teased. Carter scrunched up his nose as Kyla flushed red and glared at Kali. 

Carter pushed his plate away, not that hungry. “I’m gonna go to the library to get my Charms homework done.”

Kali raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as Carter gathered up his things and left the Great Hall. 

He didn’t like the Great Hall the first day there and it still hadn’t changed since then. It was too noisy and too crowded, he couldn’t relax or even think straight. 

The library was much calmer and he felt his shoulders sag with relief. The librarian didn’t mind him much as he weaved through the bookcases, eventually sitting in his usual homework spot. It was away from where the third and fourth years liked to lounge in the main area and secluded enough that nobody would find it unless they were looking.

He settled down and flipped open his Charms book before reaching to grab some parchment to write on. He was stopped short, however, by hands slamming onto the desk he was sitting at. 

He jumped at the thud sound it made and looked at the person leaning over him.

They weren’t wearing their cloak and looked slightly older than him, a second year perhaps. Long brown, almost black, hair fell into braids and the person had brown eyes with glasses. What stood out to him most, however, was the colours of their tie. Green and silver.

“So, is there some kind of taboo on talking to you? Like, every time I try to approach this skinny white kid who looks like he’s never even heard of the sun, some other Slytherin stops me with crazy in their eyes. You do that to ‘em?” The person reminds him vaguely of Kali.

“I-“ he blanches, struggling to form words. 

“By the way, my name’s Kimi. What’s yours?” They hold out their hand to shake.

Carter couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or not. He thought about trying to pinch himself but quickly pushed that thought away, it would simply make him look stupid. Did they seriously not know who he was? He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Carter Laffitte.” He shook Kimi’s hand as he finally managed to choke out his name.

Kimi’s eyes widened.

“Oh! You’re related to that Alexa chick! Isn’t she the one who’s super proud about her Slytherin bloodline? Yikes, dude. Sorry ‘bout that.”

There it was, the nail in the coffin. Carter looked away with a grimace.

“So...”

Carter silently begged them to just leave if they were going to drag this on about his sister.

“Whatcha doing in the library?”

Carter turned back to them and narrowed his eyes, “you actually wanna talk to me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Something in Kimi’s eyes hardened. Again, eerily familiar to Kali.

“No Slytherin does. Y’all know my brother and sister, what’s the point of getting to know me?” He replied. 

Kimi frowned and looked around. 

“I don’t see your brother and sister around right now. Why does it matter what I think of them? You’re a Ravenclaw, you’re bound to be different.”

Carter shrugged in response.

“You said no Slytherin talks to you?” Kimi asked. Carter studied their face before nodding. “Well, that’s changing today. You just got a Slytherin friend!”

Carter stared at them.

“What?”

“I’m adopting you,” Kimi deadpanned before grabbing Carter by the shoulder and hauling him up. 

Carter sputtered, “what- what do you mean you’re adopting me?!”

“I’m becoming your mom friend, genius. I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart. Anyways, new pal, you didn’t answer what you were doing in the library.”

“I’m- I’m doing homework?”

“Did you already eat dinner?” Kimi frowned.

Carter looked away. Kimi sighed and sat him down again before grabbing their own chair and pulling it next to him.

“I’m a second year, so I can help you with your homework.”

“That’s uh, nice of you? I guess? But you really don’t have to,” Carter replied, hunching into himself.

“Nah, it’s cool. Plus, you wanna see what I smuggled in?” Kimi said the last part in a whisper.

“Smuggled?” Carter asked, his voice matching Kimi’s volume.

“Okay so maybe *I* didn’t smuggle it in but some fifth year smuggled it in for me,” Kimi admitted as they pulled something out of the purse they had slung over her shoulders. What they had in their hand were some Honeydukes chocolate frogs. 

“How did you- I mean how did some fifth year smuggle those in? Hogsmeade isn’t even open yet!” 

Kimi pushed the chocolate frogs over to him, “Liam brought a whole stash when he came back to school, and he just so happened to give me some. Don’t worry about me wasting it on you, I have like five more in bag.”

“A whole stash? Is he trying to collect all the cards or is he really that desperate to break the rules?” Carter hesitantly opened the packaging and bit down onto the hard chocolate frog. It was oddly cold.

“I don’t know, both probably?” Kimi shrugged as they pulled out their own carton and started unwrapping it.

“Now about your homework.”


	5. Stuffed Owl

Kimi was really nice, Carter concluded as he sat in the Ravenclaw common room writing an essay for History of Magic. He caught up with Kali and Kyla when he left the library, the three of them now huddled in the chairs. There were still quite a number of other kids still lounging around but as the clock ticked on, most of them retired to their rooms. Carter, however, didn’t feel tired, and he was pretty sure Kali didn’t sleep. Kyla seemed to be staying up just because him and Kali were. 

He could still somewhat taste the chocolate frogs in his mouth as he blinked repeatedly to clear the blur in his eyes. It was getting late, even for him.

“Alright,” Kali yawned, “I’m going to bed.”

“Wow Kali, didn’t know you slept,” Carter snarked, stifling his own yawn. Kyla got up to stretch as Kali smacked the back of his head playfully. 

Both of them trudged up to their room as Carter slowly put his half finished essay away. His back ached from sitting hunched over for so long and the Ravenclaw room had chilled significantly since the afternoon. He blankly watched the fire crackle, shoving his hands into his pant pockets, his cloak laid out on his bed in the dorm room. 

Rolling his shoulders, the Ravenclaw walked up to his room, his fingers trailing the old wooden staircase railings. 

He opened his door as quietly as possible, trying not to disturb his roommates. Mittens looked up at him as he walked to the corner of the room where his bed was and took off his shoes, quickly changing into his pajamas. 

She purred as he crawled under the covers, moving to lay right next to him. The blanket sat heavily on his shoulders as he watched his alarm clock tick as minutes went by. Tawny the stuffed owl stood mockingly next to it.

He sat up in bed, Mittens flinching at the sudden movement, and he grabbed the stuffed owl. The owl stared at him with its beady eyes and Slytherin scarf.

He plucked at the Slytherin scarf, glancing at the Ravenclaw scarf that laid untouched on his bedside table. He looked back at the stuffed owl in his hands.

Carefully, he pulled the scarf off. It gave some resistance, but soon came undone. He closed his fist around the tiny green and silver scarf.

The next morning he put the Ravenclaw scarf around his neck. It was quite comfortable.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad to be in Ravenclaw.


	6. Another Friend

He was wrong, he decided as a Slytherin kid threw a balled up piece of paper at him from across the room. The History of Magic teacher, Professor CuthbertBinns paid no mind to the giggling coming from the Slytherins as one of them threw another piece of paper at him.

“Would you look at the little Laffitte in Ravenclaw,” one of the girls (Madison? He was pretty sure her name was Madison) taunted. The rest of her posse snickered as his jaw clenched.

He saw Kali reach for her wand, but made eye contact and shook his head. It wasn’t worth it.

“Open it, Laffitte!” the girl next to Madison shout-whispered. 

Carter picked the piece of paper up off the ground and opened it, the paper wrinkled heavily. Inside was a couple of choice wizard swears and a surprisingly well drawn picture of him getting hit by a crucio spell. Fantastic. Just what he needed to brighten the day.

It had been almost a month since the sorting ceremony and it seemed no one still could wrap their heads around him not being in Slytherin. People he talked to were either baffled and nervous around him or poked at him to try and make him angry. Several said that he should just leave if he was going to disgrace his family like that. 

Carter twirled his wand around in his left hand, his right using his quill to write down what Professor CuthbertBinns was writing dreadfully slow on the board. Finally, class was dismissed.

He packed up his things and walked out, heading straight for his house common room. He couldn’t stomach the thought of going to the Great Hall and although Kimi was great, he really didn’t want to spend time with anyone right now, especially a Slytherin. 

No one else was in the common room when he arrived, thankfully, and he walked up the stairs to his dorm room. Mittens greeted him by meowing loudly for food, before slipping out of the room altogether.

“Mittens!” He groaned, setting his stuff down before racing after his cat. The cat had already found her way behind a pile of books, which she was now stuck behind. Carter had a sneaking suspicion that if she was sorted by the sorting hat, she wouldn’t get Ravenclaw. 

She yowled and twisted behind the stack of books, hissing as Carter reached to pull her out.

“Quit fussing!” He snapped as he hauled her out from behind the stack of history books. 

Mittens bit his hand, causing him to drop her. Sometimes she liked him, but other times, like right now, he was reminded of how much of a brat she was. 

The Ravenclaw door opened as a second year entered the room, Mittens taking the opportunity to dart out of the common room in general. 

“No!” Carter yelped, quickly shoving the older kid aside and he ran after the AWOL cat. Mrs. Shermen would kill him if she found Mittens roaming the halls. He had heard of the previous caretaker of the castle, Mr. Filch, but apparently he was nothing compared to Mrs. Shermen who would stop at nothing to get you expelled if she found you with one stray piece of chocolate. 

He raced after his cat, darting through the thankfully empty hallways, before Mittens finally ran headfirst into some barrels. 

“No! Stop, you stupid cat!” Carter whined as he picked up Mittens, hissing and scratching. He didn’t know what she was on today. 

Mittens writhed in his arms as he heard footsteps echo down the hall before someone peeked their head around the corner. He mentally sighed in relief as another student around his age walked towards him, a cat in her arms as well.

“I’m sorry!” He blurted. “My cat ran out of the common room, I didn’t mean to make so much noise!”

“It’s fine,” the girl replied, her own cat shifting in her arms calmly.

She had medium dark brown hair that faded into light brown at the tips and brown eyes. Half of her face was covered by her dark brown hair and she had her cloak on. The cat in her arms was grey with dark grey stripes and a white muzzle. It narrowed its yellow eyes at Mittens.

“I’m Lara,” she smiled, “and this is Casper.” He cat flattened its ears as Lara walked closer.

“Carter. I mean- that’s my name. Carter. This is Mittens,” he replied. 

Lara looked at the scarf hanging around his neck, “you’re a Ravenclaw? Cool, I’m Hufflepuff.”

He already knew that. She had a yellow and black tie and her cloak had the Hufflepuff badge, he had also seen her during the sorting ceremony. He didn’t say anything about that, though.

“What are you doing outside with your cat?” He asked.

Lara’s eyes lit up and she grinned, a lot more mischievous than her polite smile before.

“There’s a room called the Room of Requirement, I was looking for it. My friend from Gryffindor showed me it two weeks ago, and I wanted to take Casper there. You wanna come? I already found it.”

“I’m skipping dinner anyways, why not?” Carter shrugged. Lara moved her head back to where she came from around the corner. She walked around and figuring he had nothing better to do, Carter followed. It was highly unlikely that he was gonna get murdered by a Hufflepuff of all people. 

Lara stood outside a normal looking door. It looked just like any storage closet door and Carter cocked his head to the side with a raised eyebrow.

“It looks unimpressive.”

“That’s the point!” Lara said as she opened the door. Carter’s eyes widened. It was practically Heaven.

Inside were shelves of books, not unlike the Ravenclaw common room, but instead of raggedy old armchairs there were luxurious couches and fancy bedside tables, the whole room smelling of peppermint. It felt like it was designed to feel like home. There were fluffy pet beds next to the couches, undoubtedly made for a cat.

“How?” he breathed in amazement.

“If you’re really desperate for something, it shows what you need most.”

Mittens leaped from his arms and curled up on one of the beds. It was oddly perfectly her size.

“It feels like home, but that’s weird considering my home feels nothing like this.”

“I was homesick so it remade itself to be as homely as possible, for everybody who enters. The books in here are all classics, no boring math or history books, and there are drawing pads if you look around enough along with amazing pencils.”

“I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve used it?” Carter inquired, running his finger along one of the couches.

“The Hufflepuff room can get quite...noisy,” Lara chuckled. She sat down on one of the couches, a cup of what looked like tea suddenly in front of her.

Carter sat down and cup of coffee was suddenly in front of him. He reluctantly took a sip. It was really good.

“So, how’s school treating you?” Lara asked.

“It’s fine.”

“I’m sorry about your sorting ceremony.”

Carter put his cup of coffee down.

“What do you mean?”

“Nobody clapped for you,” Lara said.

Carter shifted, looking away.

“A lot of people expected me to be in Slytherin.

“Why?”

Carter looked over at her, “you muggleborn?”

“Some call me a mudblood, but that’s one way of saying it.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Carter frowned.

“It’s nothing that can be helped.” Lara shrugged.

“My whole family is made of purebloods, we’ve always been Slytherin. It was surprising for me to be placed in Ravenclaw.”

“You seem smart enough.” Lara tilted her head slightly, the cup of tea hiding her lips.

“Thank you.”

Lara pulled out her wand, fidgeting with it. “I wish I could say the same thing about me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t perform any magic, like at all. It sucks. My wand just won’t cooperate.”

Carter pulled out his own wand and ran a finger down it’s length.

“What wand do you have?”

“Spruce with dragon heartstring.”

Carter winced. Lara looked back up from her wand.

“Is that bad?”

“Not necessarily, no. It’s a damn good wand, it’s just extremely picky.”

“How can a wand be picky? What does that mean?”

“Spruce wands require a firm hand to perform the best magic. They’re best suited for confident people. They don’t react well if you’re more nervous or cautious. I’ve heard of a spruce wand that took off somebody’s hand once because they were so unsure of themselves. Dragon heartstring is also an extremely powerful core. It goes well with the spruce wood, actually.”

“Well, I see the problem,” Lara said dryly.

Carter leaned over the arm of his couch.

“I’ve never performed magic well. The first time I did anything magical was when I lit my curtains on fire and that was the day before I turned eleven. Maybe I should get a different wand, I can already tell Professor Flitwick doesn’t like me. I can’t even lift a feather if I tried. With my luck I’ll only be able to perform Wingardium Leviosa my fifth year.” Lara clarified.

“The wand chooses you, not the other way around,” Carter pointed out, remembering what Ollivander had told him after he couldn’t find his wand after thirty minutes of searching.

“Easy for you to say, what wood did you get, Larch?”

“Holly,” Carter answered bitterly, “my own wand wood basically tells me that I have anger issues.”

Lara whistled, “that’s rough, buddy.”

“You just have to be more sure of yourself. Here, we can practice in here.”

Lara’s lips twitched but she said nothing as she took off her cloak and stood across the room from Carter, her wand held unsurely in her hands. Carter’s own wand was held firmly in his hand as he pointed it at her.

“Hold your wand tighter,” he said, eyes noticing how loosely she was holding her wand. “Like you wanna break it, like you can snap it in half with just one hand.” 

Lara’s hand tightened significantly and the wand instantly became more firm, even he could see it.

“What spell do you wanna practice?”

“Expelliarmus? Professor Brown says I’ve nearly got that one.”

Carter blinked but nodded. He did not have that one down. 

“Go ahead.” Carter smiled. 

~~~

Turns out that Lara was extremely good at Expelliarmus because by the time the clock hit eleven at night, Carter was pretty sure his butt would be sore from how many times the power of wand had pretty much toppled him back. She had apologized profusely the first time but the rest made her laugh as it kept happening.

“Professor Brown is gonna have a field day tomorrow when you go in for class, if what happened today is anything to go by.” Carter cracked a grin as he rubbed his hip.

Lara smiled back, clearly amused as he popped his back. He had only managed to knock her wand out of her hand, but he was more of a Charms person anyways. 

Mittens tussled with Casper on the ground, the two of them play fighting as he and Lara ‘dueled’. 

“You said you were better at Charms, how about we meet up again Friday so you can maybe get back your pride?”

“Being prideful is for Gryffindors,” Carter retorted, pocketing his wand and picking Mittens up. Now he just had to figure out how to get back to the Ravenclaw dorm room without running into Mrs. Shermen. 

“That wasn’t a no?” Lara put her hands on her hips, her cloak back on.

Carter simply grinned back. He made another friend.


	7. Flying Class

Flying class was a nightmare. He already knew this, but today was the day they were actually expected to fly around and Carter might as well have been told to jump from a ten-story house. 

Madam Hooch had taught them proper broom care and had taught them how to both summon and mount the broom. She had even let a few cocky Gryffindors hover mid-air. Today, though, she wanted them to fly. 

Kali stood next to him, eyes focused on Madam Hooch as she gave instructions. Carter, however, was focused more on the thought that as soon as he tries to fly, he’s going to fall to his doom. 

“Alright everyone, onto your brooms!” Madam Hooch called out. Shit, he should’ve been paying attention.

Carter felt stupid standing there, the broom between his legs. He pushed off with his toes, just like everyone else, and his grip tightened as he floated off the ground. 

Kali hovered next to him, a small smile on her lips.

“Come on, chop-chop! Six feet off the ground everybody!”

Kali rose higher next to him, but his stomach was doing that weird tumbly thing like when he was extremely nervous and his palms were sweaty and he couldn’t swallow and-

“Carter?” Kali asked, looking at him as he struggled to breathe. “We’re supposed to be six feet off the ground.” Kali gestured to everyone else who was already where they were supposed to be.

He rose slowly, gripping the broomstick so tight that he swears he could hear it snapping. He shut his eyes tightly as he got to the same level as Kali.

“His brother’s the Slytherin team captain, why’s he so nervous?” he heard a Gryffindor whisper to her friend. 

“Kali,” Carter started, his voice tight, “I’m incredibly afraid of heights.”

He could hear Kali suck in a breath.

“Just- don’t look down. Keep your eyes closed. I don’t think Madam Hooch is going to have us do much more than this.”

Right. Don’t look down. He remembered his mom telling him the exact same thing when he first got on a broomstick. Don’t look down. Don’t focus on falling. 

“Alright everyone, ten feet!”

Stick next to Kali, focus on her. Focus on the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws whispering as blood drains from his face. Focus on Kyla who was rocking slightly on her broom in an effort to stay balanced. Don’t think about being unbalanced. 

“Twenty feet, I trust you!” 

Don’t focus on falling. Don’t focus on falling and plummeting to your death. Don’t focus on falling and breaking all your bones. Don’t focus on falling and watching the ground get closer and closer and closer-

“Steady!” Kali hissed quietly and he nodded. 

“Stay there!” Madam Hooch yelled, possibly at a student daring to go higher. 

Don’t focus on falling. Don’t focus on falling. Don’t focus on falling. Don’t focus on falling. His broomstick tilted forwards without his consent and he snapped his eyes open.

He was falling. 

His breath was stolen from his lungs as he fell, twisting to try and grab his broom, but his broom had wretched out of reach like someone had purposefully done it and he was falling. He couldn’t even scream as the ground got closer and all he was thinking was to not focus on falling but now he was falling.

Arms wrapped around his waist and jerked him to a stop.

Someone had caught him. 

He was slowly lowered to the ground, not that it took that long considering how close he was, and he felt the arms hold him steady once he landed and his knees threatened to give out. He barely recognized Kali’s voice. He made a mental note to thank her later when he found his voice. 

“Carter? Carter! Carter, are you okay?!”

He nodded, still shaking from both the terror and the adrenaline. He could faintly hear Madam Hooch yelling at someone about their wand being out and how it wasn’t funny, but mostly he focused on the fact that he was on the ground and not in the sky.

“What happened?” He choked out, finally lifting his gaze from the grass. Kali and Kyla, along with some other Ravenclaw kids, were next to him, worry in their faces.

“Some Ravenclaw kid thought that it would be funny to show off some magic to his Gryffindor pals and messed with your broom.” Kali sounded pissed.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Think I might talk to ‘em later.”

“No,” Carter shook his head, “no, it’s fine. I just wanna sit down.”

Kali frowned, “okay.”

Carter swore to never get on a broomstick again.


	8. Accio

Carter slipped out of the Ravenclaw common room as quietly as possible, careful not to disturb the sleeping prefect who fell asleep while doing homework. Nerd. 

He walked through the empty hallways, his steps echoing. The hallways never ceased to amaze him, big as they were. Sure, at home he had long hallways with ceilings that he swore belonged more to a two-story house, but in Hogwarts the hallways were both tall and wide, making him feel like an insect. Some kids also said that they thought the hallways changed layouts which none of the older kids had denied.

He walked around the corner and smiled, the door to his right old and unassuming. Hopefully, it wasn’t just some storage closet.

Opening the door, he was greeted by a room filled with books, luxurious couches and the smell of peppermint. Perfect.

Lara was already there, still with her Hufflepuff cloak on, and was drinking what smelled like tea. 

Carter had stopped wearing his cloak a while ago, a habit he started to pick up from Kimi. Unless it was required, he chose to go without it. There really wasn’t a point to have it if everybody could tell he was a Ravenclaw by his blue and bronze scarf. One time a Gryffindor told him that the Ravenclaw colours were blue and silver and Kimi had to talk him down from cursing the other kid. Maybe the holly wood wand was the best choice for him.

“Oh, you’re here! I thought you weren’t coming.” Lara put her cup down.

“Why’d you think that?” Carter asked as he hopped over the arm of the sofa and sat down.

“Well, you didn’t say you were coming back and I know I can be a little...er, forthcoming sometimes.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Gives me something to do during dinner.”

Lara leaned forward, interest piqued. “Do you not eat dinner?”

“Well we’re both here right now, aren’t we?”

Lara shook her head with a smile and took off her cloak. 

“I thought we were doing Charms?” Carter asked as Lara stretched.

“Charms sucks, let’s practice Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

“Nope! You said last time that we would do Charms!”

“C’mon, I hate Charms!” Lara groaned, crossing her arms.

“You just hate it because I’m better than you.”

“Not true! I don’t know how good you are, so by default, you can’t be better than me.”

“That’s not how it works.” Carter pulled out his wand.

Lara scowled and sat back down.

Carter got up and grabbed one of the lighter paperback books in the room before setting it down on the table in front of Lara.

“Don’t you usually use feathers for Wingardium Leviosa?”

“Who says we’re doing the levitating spell?” Carter retorted.

Lara simply raised an unimpressed eyebrow before crossing her legs and narrowing her eyes in focus.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” She said as she flicked her wand.

The book didn’t move.

“You need to move your wrist more than that,” Carter said, holding back a laugh.

“Why?”

“The same reason you have to flick your wrist while performing Expelliarmus. It’s swish and flick, didn’t Professor Flitwick teach you that your first day?”

“I wasn’t paying attention,” Lara admitted, using her free hand to scratch the back of her neck in embarrassment. 

“Here, let me show you.” Carter focused on the book before reciting the spell and moving his wand. The book hovered several feet off the table before he let it drop back. 

“That seems like more movement than necessary,” Lara said in a disinterested tone.

“Just try it!”

Lara rolled her eyes before trying again.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” With the swish of her wand, the book rocketed upwards and hit the ceiling with a loud thud. Carter jumped backward, shielding his face.

“I don’t think it’s supposed to do that,” Lara said slowly as the book fell to the ground.

“That poor book!” Carter whispered as he lowered his arms. 

Lara laughed nervously as she got up and put the book back on the table.

“Alright, well it was fun when you knocked me back onto my ass when you performed the disarming charm, I think that maybe you need to learn how to rein in the power of your wand,” Carter decided, staring at the trashed book. He sat down on the arm of the couch, crossing his legs.

“Right.” 

There was a pause.

“How do I do that, exactly?”

Carter shrugged, “um, focus on the floating part of the spell and less on the idea to just get it off the table?”

“Wow, so helpful, you should be a professor,” Lara snarked, pointing her wand out again.

Carter stuck out his tongue as he watched her do it again. The book jumped like a frog but didn’t float. Lara tried again. The book didn’t move. 

“You gotta put your heart into it! I know you’re frustrated but you gotta focus!”

“You’re like my fifth grade P.E. teacher telling me that I gotta put my back into it,” Lara muttered as she tried again. 

The Ravenclaw flinched, nearly falling off the arm of the couch as the book flew across the room and knocked over a bookshelf. Both stared for a minute before Lara nervously laughed.

“That’ll fix when we leave, right?”

“Those books!” Carter said, his voice rising an octave in dismay. “You’re a book murderer!”

Lara laughed again, covering her mouth as she looked away. She got up to go and grab the book when he stopped her.

“Wait. Do you know Kimi?”

“Oh yeah, they’re Slytherin, right? Nice, brown hair in braids, stubbornly refuses to wear their cloak?” Lara slowly sat back down.

“Yeah, them. They’ve been trying to teach me some spells they’ve been learning while I do my homework at the library. I wanna try something.”

Lara nodded at him slightly. Taking that as a go-ahead, Carter closed his eyes and focused on the book. Paperback, old, bottom right corner tearing. It was light, around 15 ounces, and the spine felt scratchy from overuse.

“Accio!”

Nothing happened. 

Carter opened his eyes just in time to see a book hurtling straight at his face.

“Ow!” Carter toppled over as the book smacked him in the face, falling off the couch and onto the floor, his legs still on the back of the sofa. He rubbed his nose as Lara laughed.

“Oh my- oh my god!” She wheezed as he wriggled his way into sitting up. His back ached from where it had smacked the ground. The book laid tauntingly next to him as he fixed his glasses.

Standing up, he scowled at Lara who was laughing so hard she was crying. He picked up the book and put it back on the table before sitting down on the couch and sinking in, crossing his arms.

“Oh my- you’re pouting. You’re honest to Merlin pouting! This-“ Lara was caught off by a soundless laugh as she laughed harder. 

“I hate you.”

Lara responded by falling off the couch, wheezing.


	9. Friday Morning

“So, Halloween’s coming up,” Kali said as she poked at her eggs. Carter looked up from where he was poking at the crispy bacon he had reluctantly stuffed onto his plate.

“Yeah?”

“You guys planning to do something?” Kali stage-whispered.

“I’m pretty sure you can’t go trick-or-treating at Hogwarts, Kali,” Kyla pointed out.

“You don’t know that!” Kali responded.

Both Carter and Kyla looked at Kali unimpressed. 

“Okay so maybe you do know that, but c’mon! We can’t spend the spookiest night of the year cramped up doing homework! I hear they put jack-o’-lanterns on the ceiling instead of candles.”

“Doing homework is the exact thing I plan to do during Halloween. It’s the thing I do every night. Homework is daily, do you not understand the concept of homework?” Carter tilted his head.

“Oh, don’t give me that rubbish! You said that you were supposed to be placed in Slytherin, you’re supposed to be cunning and ambitious. Use that cunning to help us break the rules!”

“I don’t need to be reminded of that, first of all, and secondly, no. No, I am not breaking the rules. I am a good first-year student just trying to get to the second year.”

“Ugh, you’re so Ravenclaw! That’s no fun!”

“Kali, we are both Ravenclaw. Everybody at this table is Ravenclaw.”

“Yeah but at least some of them know how to have fun! I heard Micheal Cadmus cursed Ben Reilly from Hufflepuff.”

“That sounds more like Micheal cursing an innocent Hufflepuff,” Carter said dryly.

“Yeah, but it was funny.”

“I worry about you sometimes.”

Kyla rolled her eyes, “what do you want to do during Halloween?”

“Don’t encourage her!” Carter snapped.

“Okay, okay, hear me out: the Forbidden Forest.”

“Absolutely not!” Carter gaped.

“Hush, Carter. Kali?” Kyla leaned over.

“Heard from some third-year nobodies that there were giant spiders in there. Hagrid’s pets. Acromantulas.” 

“And you want us to go in there?! We’re twelve, Kali, we’re skin and bones!” Carter hissed.

“Look, I just wanna go in there and see if they were talking shit or not. In and out, no one gets hurt!”

“We are first-year students. If we get attacked, and we probably will, we’re done! Zip! Nothing! That’s the end of our lives because somebody wanted to go look at the giant tarantulas living in the creepy forest!” 

“Okay, so we’ll bring Kimi! They’re a second-year,” Kali reasoned.

Carter suddenly wondered if his fellow Ravenclaw had a death wish. “If you wanted to kill yourself so badly there are other ways to do it.”

“I’m not trying to kill myself, Carter, although that is on my to-do list. Just not during Halloween.”

Carter banged his head onto the table.

“Prefect coming, change discussion!” Kyla said.

“Uh,” said Kali, eloquently, “who’s your inspiration?”

“Inspiration?” Carter asked, glancing at the prefect who was talking Helena Ravenclaw. 

“Like, who do you admire in the Wizarding World?”

“Oh, easy. Newton Scamander.”

“The guy who wrote Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them?” Kyla asked, poking at her sausage.

“Yeah, him.”

“Are you feeling okay, Carter? Have you been imperio-ed by Hagrid?” Kali put a hand on Carter’s head like she was feeling for a fever.

“I’m fine!” Carter groaned, smacking Kali’s hand. “His book is really good and he held his own in a duel against Grindelwald. Dude’s got my respect.”

“Wasn’t he, like, a dunce?”

Carter glared at Kali and she raised her hands in surrender.

“Well, unlike this nerd, I admire someone who’s actually important,” Kali said, “Artemisia Lufkin, the first witch to ever become Minister for Magic.”

“Um, Bowman Wright. The inventor of the Golden Snitch,” Kyla said.

“Prefect’s gone,” Carter mumbled.

“Okay, like I was saying, it’ll be fun! Kyla’s coming,” Kali smirked.

“Woah, I didn’t agree to this,” Kyla objected.

“Too bad, you’re going. So is Kimi, I’m pretty sure I can figure out some way to blackmail them,” Kali muttered to herself, “I mean unless Carter’s going. Sigh, I’ll just have to think of something.”

“Did you just say sigh out loud?” Carter asked.

“Are you coming?”

Carter rolled his eyes, “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“Nope! I’ll drag you kicking and screaming if I have to.”

“Can I at least bring a friend?”

Kali and Kyla looked at each other before looking back at Carter.

“Sure,” Kali replied.


	10. Lara and Kali Have Beef

Carter traced imaginary pictures onto the Ravenclaw table, refusing to meet eyes with both Kimi and Kyla. Kali was currently having a glaring (no, not staring. Glaring.) contest with Lara.

“Well, I think you’re a coward,” Kali announced. 

“Well, I think that no one is going into the Forbidden Forest to look for Acromantulas!” Lara retorted. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kimi trying to catch his gaze. He remained focused on the table.

Carter had approached Lara about the Forbidden Forest expedition and had learned through a lot of yelling that Lara was deathly scared of spiders. When Carter had told her that it wasn’t his idea and instead of his fellow Ravenclaw’s, Lara had demanded to set up a meeting. Angry Lara was a scary Lara, Carter had decided.

Now, the Ravenclaw table had an extra Hufflepuff and Slytherin there. Kimi and Kyla had remained dutifully quiet as Kali and Lara had taken an instant rivalry with each other. Kali called Lara boring, Lara called Kali immature and dangerous. Carter really didn’t want to be there.

“You’re just like every other Hufflepuff! Boring!” 

“Well, at least we’re not dangerous, unlike that Cadmus kid who cursed Ben.”

“Oh c’mon, does anybody else think that’s funny?”

“No,” Kimi and Kyla answered instantly.

“And I’m a Slytherin,” Kimi added.

“All I’m getting from this conversation is that everybody I know wouldn’t have even been considered in Gryffindor.”

“We’re not going into the Forbidden Forest to look for Acromantulas,” Lara said.

“Who’s we?”

“Me and Carter.”

“Well, I mean, we don’t have to go into the forest to look for Acromantulas. There are other creatures in there,” Carter mumbled, lifting his gaze slightly.

There was a moment of silence.

“What kind of animals?” Kyla asked finally.

“Nifflers, Bowtruckles, Unicorns, Threstrals. Centaurs live in there, too, but I wouldn’t consider them a creature,” Carter responded, tapping his fingers lightly on the wooden table.

“Unicorns?” Kimi asked, leaning over the table with an awed expression.

“Threstrals?” Kali scrunched up her nose. “Don’t you need to witness someone die before you can actually see them?”

“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean they don’t live in there,” Carter shrugged.

Kimi stared at him for a moment.

“I would like to see some Unicorns,” they said slowly.

“I’ve never seen a Bowtruckle up close, if we go we could possibly find a tree with them,” Kyla nodded.

“We don’t have to go in for the Acromantulas like I said. There are other magical creatures in there. Heard some whispers ‘bout some Hippogriffs that may or may not live in the forest,” Carter finally lifted his gaze from the table to look at Kali and Lara.

“But that’s boring! I want giant man-eating spiders!” Kali whined.

“It’s safe,” Lara argued, “and I would personally like to see these Threstrals for myself if they do live in there.”

“You could hypothetically see Threstrals?” Kyla asked. Lara shrugged in response, not answering the question aloud.

“Well, then it’s settled. We’ll sneak out during Halloween and go into the Forbidden Forest. Not to look for giant spiders but to look for Unicorns and Hippogriffs.”

“I guess it would be cool to see a Unicorn,” Kali grumbled, her head resting on her hand.

“Do you think they would like me?” Kimi asked.

“Well they only like witches, so you’re kinda on the border. Tough luck, Carter,” Lara replied, twirling her wand in her hand. 

“They don’t only like witches, they just prefer them,” Carter said.

“Sounds like you’re jealous the Unicorns won’t like you,” Kali mumbled.

“I heard that they prefer the pure of heart, so you won’t be seeing any either, Kali,” Carter teased.

“Oh, bugger off!”


	11. Expecting Patronum

Kimi sat next to him, watching as he wrote on a scroll.

“I thought it was supposed to be a foot long?” They asked, their mouth full of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.

“I thought that Honeydukes wasn’t open,” Carter retorted, not looking up from his paper.

“Liam gave me them,” Kimi replied, popping another one in their mouth.

“Of course. Who always gives you edible contraband. I’m starting to think that you and Liam are a little bit more than just friends.”

Kimi flushed, “he’s nice.”

“He’s a fifth-year, Kimi. Do not date a fifth-year.”

“I dated a fifth-year my first year here, wouldn’t it be better to date fifth-year now?”

“You dated a fifth-year your first year?”

“What can I say, Ryken was and still is pretty hot.”

Carter stared at them, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times. He shook his head and turned back to his essay.

“Yeah, but no, Liam and I aren’t like that. He looks like a mouse, no thanks.”

“Oh, so you only go for the hot guys? No wonder you don’t flirt with me,” Carter muttered.

Kimi pushed him playfully and snickered. “Sorry, I date older kids. I’m not interested in dating a literal baby.”

“Thanks? No offense but I’m not into you either.”

“Yeah, I know. You’ve been drooling over that Slytherin first-year.”

Carter choked on air.

“What?! No-no I haven’t! What are you talking about?”

“Oh please, every kid at the Slytherin table is, too. She is quite pretty,” Kimi winked. Carter glared at them, his cheeks red.

“That probably means she has a boyfriend or girlfriend already. Plus, I’m, well, me, and she’s her,” Carter put his quill down, gesturing to himself.

“Nuh-uh, none of that self-deprecation nonsense. You should go talk to her when you get the chance!” Kimi tutted.

“Ew. Gross. Social interaction.”

“Yes, I know, you would rather be mauled by a bear than talk to anyone besides your two friends.”

“Four,” Carter coughed.

“Two. Do you really talk to Kali or Kyla without them prompting you?”

“I-“ Carter looked to the floor- “I don’t have a good answer for that.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Can we talk about something else? Please?” Carter asked, rolling up his parchment. It was done, anyways.

“Sure, you wanna hear about some spells Liam’s told me about?”

“Oh God, Liam,” Carter groaned, “do you talk about anyone else?”

“No, that’s not what I meant! I just wanted to talk about some spells! The fifth-years are learning all the cool ones.”

Carter sighed, “like what?”

“For Transfiguration, they learn vanishing spells and in Charms, they learn summoning and silencing charms.”

“Summoning charms? Wouldn’t that be like Accio?”

“I guess, but what's really cool is what they’re learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts right now!”

“What’re they learning?”

“Expecto Patronum!” Kimi stage-whispered.

“...Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“C’mon, it’s like the coolest spell in all of history!”

“I would argue that Tarantallega is, but keep talking.”

“What do you think your Patronus be? I heard it’s like a spirit animal!” Kimi sat sideways on the chair, their legs resting on the arm.

“A spirit animal?”

“It’s a muggle thing,” Kimi waved it off.

“Well, what’s a spirit animal and what does it have to do with what our Patronus would be?”

“So a spirit animal, it’s basically your spirit’s animal. It’s not that hard to understand. Like, if your soul was personified into an animal. I heard that patronuses were the same thing. The more aggressive people, like a lot of Gryffindors, get fierce patronuses while people in the Hufflepuff house get patronuses like kittens!”

“How would a kitten threaten a dementor?”

“It’s just an example! What I wanted to ask was what do you think you’re Patronus would be?”

“I dunno. A fox would be cool, maybe a magical creature like an Occamy. I highly doubt it would be an Occamy, but’s it cool to imagine. My Patronus will most likely be something unassuming.”

“I would love to have a leopard or lion Patronus, or maybe something like a shark! Liam says he has a dragon Patronus but I asked Toxin and apparently he has a rattlesnake. Toxin himself has a hedgehog Patronus.”

“You seem like the kind of person who would have a lioness Patronus,” Carter noted.

“I’m guessing yours would be an eagle.”

“Why an eagle?”

“It matches your house.”

“Ha-ha, very funny. Be serious.”

“You seem like the kind of person who would get a cat. Or a crow. My bet is on you getting a bird.”

“What about the others? My bets on Kali getting Hyena.”

“Your friend Lara seems like the kind of person to get a-“

“Dolphin,” Carter cut them off, “definitely a dolphin. I bet my life and all my money on it. And Mittens. I’m one hundred percent sure that her Patronus is a dolphin.”

“Wow. You feel really strong about the Hufflepuff getting a dolphin. I was thinking hare or spider. What made you think dolphin?”

“I just- I just have a hunch. Why spider?”

“She’s scared of them.”

“No. Just no.”

Kimi covered their mouth as they giggled, “alright, dolphin it is.”

“What about Kyla?”

“Cat?”

Carter nodded, “cat.”

They grinned before the bell cut them off.

“That’s my cue to leave. You have Transfiguration next, right?” Carter asked as he gathered his stuff.

“Yeah, but I’m ditching with Alyssa.”

“Alyssa, that’s the Hufflepuff you always hang out with, right?”

“Yep! Who said Hufflepuffs can’t break the rules?”

“Nobody,” Carter deadpanned before starting to walk away, “see you!”


	12. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> vent. something happened recently (as you can tell from this chapter). not gonna be writing for a while. just need to think things over

Carter tossed the ball up into the air. It fell down. He caught it. Carter tossed the ball up into the air. It didn’t fall down. He reached up and grabbed it. Carter tossed the ball up into the air. 

A letter sat mockingly on the nightstand next to him, a green stamp sealing the envelope. The green stamp that was too eerily familiar to the colour of the Slytherin house.

Mom had always like colour coordination.

He felt sick to his stomach as he tossed the ball again and again and again. It was one of the many pastimes he did in the manor. Dylan was too busy with school for as long as he could remember, Alexa, shoving him to the side. He slowly pushed Mom and Jim away as he got older, as he got more and more isolated. 

He secluded himself in the library, staying there for hours and hours, skipping meals. Danica, the house-elf, once tried to get him to come out, to eat with the rest of the family, but she had scurried away, her dress rags on fire. He had apologized profusely hours later, begging her not to be mad at him just because he lost his temper. 

He had always hated how his family treated Danica, he was worried that he’d soon treat her the same.

Always the odd one out in the family. Dylan was the heir to the house, Alexa the pureblood staple. And then there was him. 

The neighbor’s kids whispered about him. Boring and annoying they called him. He went where he didn’t belong. Jaiden was there, but eventually, she was whisked away to Ilvermorny in America. Jaiden was his first and only friend, and then she was gone.

He didn’t make friends with anyone else.

He played with the pets, Alexa and Dylan never bothering to. He fed them and let them outside, playing fetch and petting them. 

Most of his life was spent looking after the pets or in the library. He stopped looking for friends at seven. He stopped going outside at nine.

He didn’t leave his room at ten.

Mom was always at work or trying to remarry. Dad was gone. He remembered faint whispers of their shouting echoing through the halls as he played in his room with Danica. He didn’t remember the last time he saw his dad.

There weren’t a lot of people Mom would hang around long enough to marry, or even date. So few purebloods were left in the wizarding world that you practically had to marry your cousin at this point. Not to mention that she already had three kids with her previous husband. 

Instead, she married a half-blood. James Kane. Jim, Carter called him. Jim was nice. He had been raised by his wizard grandparents, but apparently, he had a muggle mother and a wizarding father. He played golf. He cooked a lot, he made a lot of steak.

Carter liked Jim. Jim treated house-elves with respect. He made delicious food. He was funny. 

But he also had Slytherin pride that ran deep through his father’s side. He really pounded into them that Slytherins were the best house and everything else was unacceptable. Mom had said something like that before, but she had also said that she didn’t really care, as long as they were happy.

Carter wasn’t sure if it was possible to hate himself as much as he did. He liked Jim, he wanted to make him proud. Based on the envelope sent, Jim possibly didn’t know. 

Sooner or later he would get a Howler from Jim, he was sure of it.

He did hate himself, he realized. He really did. It was justified, too.

He was annoying. Never had any friends before Hogwarts, and the kids here certainly told him so. Lara and Kimi were nice, but they were two kids. 

He was ugly. He learned that early on, too. Blonde hair where his family had dark brown. Blue eyes where his family had hazel. He didn’t care too much about his looks, but his siblings had said so much that it repeated in his head like a broken record. He was ugly. He was the odd one out. His siblings joked that he was adopted or the result of an affair with a muggle. A filthy blonde and blue-eyes muggle. His mother didn’t stop the teasing.

He was a nervous kid, he knew this already. Couldn’t handle crowds. Got sensory overload sometimes just by how loud it was. Closed in spaces made him panic. Always tense when in the dark, even though he knew that there were no monsters. It gradually morphed into social anxiety. He couldn’t talk to new people without breaking down. Everybody drained him emotionally. He was made fun of for stuttering and shaking, the professors disappointed when they call on him in class and get nothing but half-finished sentences. 

Too many times he had curled up in this empty room and had to ride out a panic attack, sometimes missing classes altogether just because he couldn’t calm down. Struggling to keep his grades up was like trying to swim in the ocean, each wave a knock of anxiety and self-hatred that pushed him under. 

His mother had gotten him medication. He didn’t take it.

The orange pill bottles remained hidden behind mountains of clothes and books he had stuffed into his dresser. He hated that stupid shade of orange. The pills were always bitter.

The rubber ball exploded with a loud pop, making Carter jump out of his skin. He sat there, on his elbows, breathing heavily. 

“Just a ball,” he reminded himself, “just a stupid red rubber ball.”

His mother had once taken him to a doctor, trying to figure out what was wrong with her son. Why he wasn’t eating, why he couldn’t sleep at night, why he had panic attacks, why he was so broken. The doctor had prescribed the medication to him, telling his mother that something was wrong with him. 

“Take him to a therapist,” the doctor had told his mom with a pitiful smile. Carter hated pity. He hated how people pitied him and he hated how people danced around him like he was going to explode. 

There had been many reasons from that doctor that suggested why he was like this. OCD, depression, anxiety. He’d been prescribed medication for all of them. They never fixed anything, but his mother had thought they had. All the medication did was teach him how to hide his sadness better, how to put on a fake smile. 

Mom had seen his (fake) smiles and said no to the therapist. Carter had spent all night in the library, trying to figure out how to stop it on his own.

He had been suicidal at one point. Wasn’t anymore, but he had been. Didn’t see the point. You’re born and then you die, what’s the point of living life to the fullest? You’re going to die and eventually be forgotten. No one loved him anyways. Mom and Alexa and Dylan, they had each other, and Jim never really liked him. He supposed Danica would miss him, but she was just a house-elf and he was her cruel owner. 

Everybody told him to get over himself. That he just wanted attention. He was too young to be depressed, they always said, so he wasn’t. Too young to have anxiety or OCD, so he didn’t. Pretended he was fine.

“Oh, he’s just an introvert,” his mother laughed. “He just likes to be alone.”

Carter wondered what the letter was about. Had Alexa and Dylan told Mom about his sorting? Was she mad? Was she disappointed? Was she going to disown him? His fingers itched to open it, to know, but his mind screamed at him. Too many possibilities and too many of them bad. 

He choked on a breath and he rolled over in his bed and look at the envelope.

He didn’t like possibilities. He liked facts. He liked hard, concrete facts. He liked logic. Anxiety was smothering, but knowledge could help push it into the corner, even if it’s only for a little bit. Anxiety was illogical. If you could see the logic through it, it had no power. 

That’s what he told himself, anyway, as he buried himself in books.

Carter sat up and threw his legs over the bed. His hands gripped the blanket on top tightly, the texture grounding to an extent. He hunched over on himself, squeezing his eyes shut and focusing on his breathing.

In for four, hold for four, out for four. 

One, two, three, four.

He looked at the envelope still on his nightstand.

One, two, three, four.

He reached for it with shaking fingers.

One, two, three, four.

The envelope felt unnaturally bulky in his hands, he didn’t like the texture. 

One, two, three, four.

The wax peeled away without any resistance as he opened the envelope and pulled the letter out.

One, two, three, four.

He studied the handwriting. It was Mom. 

One, two, three, four.

The letter said a lot, but what it didn’t say surprised him. Mom wasn’t mad or disappointed. She was happy that he found a place in Ravenclaw. She hoped that he had found friends and heard from Alexa and Dylan that he had made friends with a Hufflepuff.

“Good friends, those Hufflepuff are. You keep that one close.” She had written down.

Carter laughed wetly. She wasn’t mad!

But then.

No.

Oh, no, please no.

Jim had left.

It hit him like a truck and his hands tightened on the letter. Tears welled up in his eyes. 

According to Mom, he had just walked out one day. He had dropped by a visit or two before he had told her that he wanted a divorce. He could see a place in the letter where a tear had fallen onto it and Mom had desperately tried to wipe it away, worried that it would smudge the ink. 

No. This wasn’t fair. 

A sob ripped through his throat. This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t fair at all!

Even though Jim had hammered in Slytherin pride and had made him feel insecure on more than one occasion, he was still, well, Jim! Jim was basically a second dad. Carter had been delighted when they got married. He viewed Jim as a father figure when Dad was gone.

He can’t just leave.

He can’t!

He can’t.

Right?

But he did. 

He had almost had a perfect family. Sure, most of his family hated him just for the fact of existing, but it had been so close. He had a mother, a father-like figure, and siblings. It was so close.

But now it was so far. He felt like Tantalus, the food and water just out of reach, the happiness and family just out of reach. He could almost grab it, he could almost touch it, but it pulled away at the last second.

Mom wasn’t going to remarry. He knew this. He didn’t spend a lot of time with Mom anymore but he spent enough to know that she was tired. She had been raising three kids and only now had finally remarried. Married someone she thought would stay with her until the three of them were out of Hogwarts and had their own jobs.

And he had left. Left for weeks and weeks before finally coming back one day just to tell her that he’s getting a divorce. That he doesn’t love her anymore.

He didn’t think to talk to him, or Dylan, or Alexa. He hadn’t even sent a letter the first week as he had with Alexa and Dylan. Carter just assumed he was mad that Carter was in Ravenclaw, not that he had ditched Mom. Not that he had ditched Carter.

Carter was a lot of things.

He was annoying, ugly, an introvert.

And now he was alone.

Incredibly, utterly, alone.


	13. Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i will be bulk-posting once again because i dropped off for two weeks but i am now back

“What part of this big dark and scary forest makes you wanna go in?” Lara asked incredulously.

“It’s dark and spooky, who wouldn’t?” Kali retorted.

Everybody else raised their hands. Kali scowled and lifted her wand, casting an almost silent Lumos, everybody quickly doing the same.

“Something strikes me that this is a bad idea,” Kyla muttered as they walked into the woods.

“You’re just scared ‘cause it’s Halloween,” Carter teased.

“Or she could be scared because we’re entering the Forbidden Forest. It is forbidden for a reason,” Kimi replied, looking rather bored as they tripped over a tree root.

“I’m calling Halloween,” Carter said firmly.

The whole Halloween atmosphere had been felt throughout the entire school. Kids were buzzing with excitement, especially Kali, and talked to each other about past Trick-or-Treating experiences. Most purebloods never went Trick-or-Treating, but Dylan had been the tricking type, often pulling pranks on Carter and his sister during the night. He was personally fascinated by the idea of it, not that he would’ve participated in the holiday if he could’ve. It all seems rather complicated just for free candy.

“It’s free candy!” Kali had insisted to Carter when he asked.

“You can get free candy by asking your parents to get you some,” he had responded.

But the scary aspect, the frights and spooks and pranks, he loved it. You could say he loved the aesthetic of Halloween. The scariest night of the year. The perfect night to break the rules and go into the definitely haunted forest.

“Maybe we’ll see some spooky skeletons,” Kali whispered into his ear from behind him. He yelped and stumbled forward, saved by Lara grabbing his arm before he could fall onto the ground.

“Don’t do that!” He hissed, straightening himself and glowering at Kali. Kimi noticeably stifled a laugh. 

The five trekked through the forest, nothing interesting happening for a solid ten minutes. Sure, Kyla had seen some Bowtruckles and made the entire group stop so she could look at them, but that wasn’t interesting as it was annoying and mildly amusing. 

Carter started to lag behind as he toyed with the ends of his scarf. He was seriously regretting coming here. He had already isolated himself for a solid two weeks after the letter from Mom just for Kali to break into the dorm room and haul his ass to the Great Hall so they could plan the Forbidden Forest expedition more. Lara had tried to talk to him the whole time, but he had remained stubbornly quiet. 

Right now he could be enjoying delicious pumpkin pie and enjoying the might by holing up in his room and studying, but instead, he was tripping over tree roots and jumping at the sound of owls hooting in the distance. 

A rustle of leaves caught his attention and he stopped, looking to his right for the source of the sound. The chatter of voices slowly faded away as the group walked away (forgetting him, he thought grimly). 

The leaves rustled once more like an animal was under them. Carter held his wand out, still lit with Lumos, and slowly made his way to the pile of leaves that were shaking. He crouched down and carefully poked it with a nearby stick.

A pale pink beak...thing poked out of the leaves, closely followed by a black body. It was a Niffler.

Carter blinked at it, still holding his wand and the stick.

The Niffler blinked at him, clutching what seemed to be a piece of shiny tinfoil close to its pouch.

“Whatcha, doing there?” Carter asked.

It tilted its head before looking at his glasses. It reached for them and pulled them off.

“I can’t see without those,” Carter commented as he sat down, legs crossed, before pulling his glasses out of its hands. It huffed and reached for them again.

“No, no- you cannot have my glasses,” Carter scolded, lightly smacking its hand away. 

It whined and crawled into his lap, trying to get the glasses once more.

“Here, I have a coin in my pocket, you can have it.” Carter reached into his pocket and pulled out an American quarter. His dad had sent it to him a couple of weeks before he had come to Hogwarts, it was a miracle he still had it. Just because he hadn’t physically seen his father in years doesn’t mean they didn’t write letters. Dad had a very nice snowy owl named Stitch. He lived in America now and had managed to get an American quarter (somehow) and gave it to Carter as an early birthday gift.

The Niffler latched onto the coin as soon as it was out of his pocket. It chirped at him before stuffing the coin into its pouch.

“Carter!” Lara’s voice drifted through the forest. He looked up sharply and winced at the Niffler in his lap.

“Sorry little buddy, but I gotta go. Keep that quarter safe for me, alright?”

The Niffler protested as he picked it up and put it back on the ground. He wiped the leaves and dirt off his jeans before shouting to Lara, “coming!”

Leaving the Niffler there, he jogged up to where he had heard Lara calling him. She was standing there, arms crossed, looking majorly irritated.

“Mind explaining why you wandered off in the dangerous forest?”

“I stopped to look at something. You guys were the ones who kept walking, that ain’t my fault.”

Lara rolled her eyes before gesturing further into the forest, “everybody else is waiting for us. C’mon.”

Carter sighed and rolled his shoulders before following Lara as they walked to catch up. Kali simply raised an unimpressed eyebrow before continuing deeper. Carter scowled at the back of her head and followed. They treated him more like an unruly five-year-old than a kid of their year, but that might be the bitterness talking.

The days and nights were getting colder, already frost was covering the grass in the mornings. It didn’t last until their second class, but it was a bitter reminder of winter yet to come. Tonight was no different. Carter could feel the cold sting of the wind, what was left of the leaves rustling in the wind, threatening to blow off. 

Carter flexed his fingers, feeling the tips start to become numb. No matter what they saw, they couldn’t stay out here forever and Carter was regretting not bringing ear muffs. 

The night itself was peaceful. There was something about walking through a forest during the night that made it so relaxing yet ominous. Carter was sure the others would agree, he could see Lara trailing her fingertips past the trees.

“It’s been fifteen minutes, I’m cold. We’re not gonna find anything, let’s just go back inside before we get detention,” Kyla complained, rubbing her hands on her arms.

“It’s October, you should’ve worn something more than a long-sleeve button-up shirt,” Kimi pointed out. Kyla glared at them but didn’t say anything else.

“Carter, share your scarf.” Kyla looked at him.

“What? No.”

“C’mon, you’re already wearing both your button-up and your sweater, I’m freezing over here!”

“My scarf!” Carter gripped the end of his scarf defensively.

“Guys, shut up,” Kimi whispered.

“No! Carter won’t share his scarf!”

“It’s my scarf, get your own!”

“Guys, seriously, shut up!” Kimi whispered again, harshness creeping into their tone. Carter flinched back in surprise, then followed their gaze.

It was a horse. 

With a horn on its head.

“Merlin, I’m actually dead!” Carter murmured as the Unicorn walked towards them, eyeing the group warily. Carter could see Kimi practically vibrating with excitement as it got closer. 

It neighed and shook its head before approaching Kali, who stood frozen still at the front of the group. Carter held his breath as it faced her, sniffing cautiously, before eventually ducking its head. 

“I’m gonna explode,” Kali smiled as she pet its mane. Kyla and Kimi slowly walked towards it, it acknowledging their presence with a shake of its head in their direction. Lara hung back as the others starting to pet its mane.

Carter looked towards Lara, raising an eyebrow. It - he judging by the thickness of the mane - was letting Kimi pet him, so there was no reason for Lara to be disregarded. Lara caught his eye and quickly ducked her head.

“Something about a horse with a pointy horn on its head doesn’t scream safe to me, especially up close,” she whispered.

“You want to see a Threstral, isn’t that basically a skeleton horse with wings that, also, are invisible to anybody who hasn’t seen anybody die? Unicorns sound like a ball of fluff compared to Threstrals,” Carter quietly pointed out.

“Shut up, nerd!” Kali called. Carter and Lara looked up to see the other three carefully backing away from the Unicorn as it stomped the ground.

“It probably wants to leave!” Carter replied, making the other three moves further back. The Unicorn blinked before turning tail and running with impressive speed.

“Wow, who knew that they were so fast?” Kimi crossed their arms in amazement. 

They all turned to look at Carter.

Carter scowled, “turn your ass back around.”

“But you did, didn’t you?” Kyla asked.

“Yes, it mentions how hard they are to catch in the book,” Carter rolled his eyes, shoving his hands into his back jean pockets.

Lara glanced up at the moon. “Guys, it's getting late, we should probably head back.”

“Yeah, probably. My prefect would skin me alive if they found out I snuck out, not to even mention Snape.” Kimi gave an exaggerated shudder of horror. Everybody else nodded and started walking back to the castle, which was now a black figure in the distance.

“Sorry, Lara. No Threstrals tonight,” Carter said as the two stalled to follow.

“It’s not like I would’ve been able to see it anyway, but it would’ve been cool,” Lara shrugged. Carter cocked his head slightly but bit his tongue. He didn’t delve into a touchy-feely discussion right now. Both jogged to catch up with the other three.

He found himself lingering behind as the group walked back to the castle. Kyla and Kali were having a heated discussion while Kimi walked next to Lara as they exchanged a few words. His feet seemed to drag and something in his mind kept screaming at him to stay a little longer. The Forbidden Forest was a creepypasta to all of Hogwarts and the five of them had just entered to see a Unicorn, then leave. He felt like he wanted to get something more out of it.

“Disappointed? Me too.” Carter looked up and saw that Kimi had slowed their pace to walk next to him.

“I thought you wanted to see a Unicorn?” Carter asked.

“Yeah, but I was hoping that maybe we’d see something really cool,” Kimi clicked their tongue, “like one of those Acromantulas.”

“Jeez, you trying to give Lara a heart attack?”

Kimi snorted and elbowed him in the side, “that would’ve been fun to watch.”

“Don’t tell Lara that, she might be a Hufflepuff but she can be ruthless,” Carter grinned.

“As bad as my prefect?”

“More like Snape.”

“What did you do to get on her bad side?”

“Asked her to look for giant man-eating spiders with me.”

Kimi laughed and shook their head before walking faster, leaving Carter at the back of the group by himself once more. His grin slipped off as he purposefully stepped on the frosty leaves on the ground making a satisfying crunching sound. 

He stopped as he encountered the same pile of leaves he had found the Niffler before. He watched it carefully, his hands still shoved into his back pockets.

A small pink snout shot out of the leaves and looked at him with curiosity. He knelt down and scratched its head, a ghost of a smile on his face. He hadn’t known any better, he would’ve guessed that the Niffler was somebody’s pet. The Niffler squeaked and shoved its head into his hand when he stopped.

Carter looked back at the group who was still walking before turning back to the Niffler.

“I have to go,” he said, getting up.

The Niffler whined but crawled back into its den as he walked away. 

“Guys, wait up!” He shouted as he ran after them.

“Maybe don’t lag behind, slowpoke!” Kali retorted.


	14. Making Up

“You broke into our common room,” Carter said slowly, stifling a yawn. “Let me repeat: you broke into the Ravenclaw common room.”

Lara shifted her feet guiltily. 

“Why?” Carter asked, crossing his arms. “What compelled you to break into another house’s common room?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” Lara replied, “you’ve been avoiding pretty much everybody recently.”

“So you broke into my common room.”

Lara laughed nervously, “yes?”

Carter blinked. Standing in front of him was what he considered to be his best friend, her pastel yellow pajamas standing out amongst the dull grays and blues of the Ravenclaw common room, not to mention the faded colours of the books lining the shelves and the rich brown of the leather couches. The whole room was dusty, yet perfectly clean in order to preserve the books, the whole atmosphere of a library. Yet, here she was, in her yellow clothes, standing in the room, holding her wand out. 

“We should probably talk somewhere else. If one of my prefects finds out that there's a stray Hufflepuff in our common room, they wouldn’t be too happy,” Carter said, grabbing his own wand from where it lay on the table.

Lara nodded, chewing on her bottom lip as she led the Ravenclaw out of the common room. Carter silently followed, trusting her to lead them to a safe place. Sure enough, what seemed to be a storage closet door appeared where it shouldn’t have been. Lara opened it and stepped inside. Carter felt the tension in his shoulders begin to relax at the sight of the room where he and his friend had practiced spells for hours.

It had been a while since he’d been here.

Lara looked back at him before going to sit down at the couch - her couch - and gestured with her head for him to sit down at the couch next to it - his couch. Ever since the first day they had subconsciously sat in the same couches, Carter on the left couch and Lara on the right. At first, there had been four couches, resembling a circle around the room, but now there were only two with two separate coffee tables. The room had accommodated to fit their pattern. 

Carter took a seat on his couch and picked up the black coffee that stood waiting for him, the heat warming his fingers. Even the corridors of Hogwarts were getting cold as winter finally settled in. It had been around three weeks since Halloween. Apparently, according to Tommy who would not shut up about it, it was going to Thanksgiving soon. Even though the American holiday meant nothing to Carter, the passage of time did.

A month and one day since the letter. He hadn’t sent one back.

“Your hands are shaking,” Lara said gently. Carter snapped out of his thoughts to look at his cup of coffee, which was indeed shaking with his hands. He swallowed and drank some of the coffee before setting it on the table, afraid to spill it from his clumsy hands.

“So, you wanna talk to me about whats going on with you?”

“Nothings going on with me, I’m allowed to have some time to myself.”

“Carter, you’ve been acting weird for a month,” Lara frowned, “we’re all concerned.” He held his tongue as Lara shifted where she was sitting and leaned closer. “Does this have something to do with that letter that came in?”

Carter’s heart dropped. “What letter?”

“Y’know, the letter you got a while back. Some tawny owl came and dropped a letter in front of you and you rushed out of the Great Hall saying that you needed to work on homework. Kali told me later that you hadn’t left your room except for classes for a solid week afterward.”

Carter looked away from Lara, shame burning through him. Again, he said nothing.

“What did that letter say?” Lara asked quietly. His lungs felt like they were about to burst, his throat was tight and his eyes watered. 

“It was from my mom,” he choked out.

“Oh.” Lara’s eyes went wide. “Was she unhappy?”

“No,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, “no she wasn’t mad. She was happy that I was happy in my house, even if it wasn’t Slytherin.”

“So then, what was it?” Lara tilted her head to the side slightly, concern turning her mouth into a heavy frown.

“Jim left.” The words felt hollow on his tongue like they weren’t true. He wanted them to not be true. He wanted this to all be a sick nightmare that he would wake up from. Something tight and suffocating coiled deep into his stomach, twisting and turning with every word he managed to utter past his lips. Those two simple words, so meaningless yet so powerful at the same time.

“Jim?” Lara echoed. “Wasn’t he...?”

“My step-dad,” Carter clarified, staring down at his lap.

Lara put her cup of tea down with a soft clink and turned back to him. Even without seeing her, he could feel her staring at him like she was analyzing the way he was sitting. Like she could hear his thoughts. Stop, he thought repeatedly like she could actually read his mind. 

“Carter, I’m so sorry,” she finally said.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” Carter muttered bitterly, those four words taking him back to when Dad first left and everyone around him treated him like he was a piece of glass. 

“Do you wanna talk about it more?”

Carter looked at her before quickly looking away. “No, not really.”

Lara picked up her cup of tea again and traced the rim with her finger. 

“Do you wanna practice some spells? We haven’t met up since that letter, I bet you’ve fallen behind.” There was a playful tone in her voice and Carter felt himself smiling slightly.

“Full of yourself, aren’t you?” He asked.

“We’ll see. C’mon get your wand.” Lara smiled back.

Carter reached for his wand which was sitting on the table next to his abandoned cup of coffee but stopped when he felt fingers clasp around his wrist. He looked up and saw Lara looking at him with concern.

“Hang out with us more, okay? All of us. I know that right now sucks but hopefully, we’ll be able to take your mind off of it.” He could tell that she was worried about him forgetting this night and immediately retreating back into his room.

“I will,” he replied. Lara smiled kindly and let go of his wrist, grabbing her own wand.


	15. Roommates

“It’s snowing!” 

Carter pulled the blanket over his head and buried his head deeper into the pillow, trying to block out Rowan Copper’s voice. His roommate always got over-excited about simple things, and apparently that included snow.

“It snows every year, Copper,” Micheal Cadmus said, sounding bored. Vincent Firethron peeked up from where he was crouched over his history book but didn’t make a comment.

“I know! It’s always cool to watch the snow, though.” Carter heard Rowan shift and all he could imagine was his fellow Ravenclaw smushing his face against the window.

“Copper, get your face off the window,” Vincent said, “the house-elves already have the displeasure of cleaning up your dirty clothes, don’t make them wash your filthy face stains off the glass.” 

Carter snickered from where he was laying and heard Micheal chuckle, too. He pulled the blanket off of him and sat up just in time to see Rowan spin around and frown at all of them, almost like a pout. 

Vincent closed his book and swung his legs off his bed, stretching before gathering his things into his suitcase. “Are you guys going home for the holidays?”

“Me mum would murder me if I didn’t,” Micheal said, looking up from where he was shoving his folded clothes into his chest. “I’d prefer to keep my head, thank you very much.”

“Think it’d be my dad who’d take my head if I didn’t come back this Christmas,” Rowan mused. Vincent nodded with a half-grin. 

“Are you going back home?” Micheal asked him. Carter shook his head.

“I’d prefer to stay here. Home’s more of a nightmare compared to Hogwarts,” he replied.

“You got that right,” Micheal said, turning a photograph of what must be his family in his hands. Carter grimaced and shook his head, turning his attention back to Rowan who was once again gaping at the window.

“Hey Laffitte,” Micheal called as he closed his suitcase.

“Yeah?”

“Curse Sheridan for me if he ever starts talking shit, alright? Actually, just curse anyone who starts talking shit about you,” Micheal winked.

“Okay, got it,” Carter grinned, tossing a two-fingered salute as a goodbye. Micheal smiled back and walked out, his suitcase trailing behind him.

“Don’t listen to him if you wanna stay in school,” Vincent warned. “That means no cursing.”

“Curse whoever you’d like, don’t follow the rules!” Rowan said, leaning against Carter’s bedframe. “Micheal was right, curse Tommy especially.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Copper.” 

“No! No cursing anyone! Our whole house revolves around not breaking the rules!” Vincent sputtered.

“Come on, Firethron, live a little!” Carter said, waving his hands for emphasis.

Vincent scrunched up his nose in disgust. “I’m leaving.”

“Aw c’mon, Vincent!” Rowan whined. Rowan seemed to be the only person who actually called people by their first name, especially when it came to Vincent. The whole dormitory had decided early on to just refer to each other by last names since it was easier. There weren’t a lot of kids in Ravenclaw anyway, so it didn’t really matter if you called someone by their first or last name.

“Yeah Firethron, stay a little longer. Don’t you wanna hang out with your boyfriend?” Carter taunted playfully. Vincent and Rowan both flushed bright red. 

“Carter!” Rowan hissed, covering his face with his hands. Vincent shifted where he stood before silently leaving, looking mortified. Rowan soon followed, not without glaring at Carter first. 

“Bye Firethron! Bye Copper!” Carter called once they had both left, waving his hand goodbye even though they couldn’t see him. 

“Christmas break,” he said to himself, “this’ll be fun.”


	16. Snow Day

“Let go of me.”

“No.”

“Lara, let go of me.”

“Nope.”

“Lara- Lara put me down. Lara. Stop- put me down. Lara!” Carter squirmed in Lara’s arms as she dragged him outside. She refused to let go as she continued to practically carry him past the courtyard and into the field next to Hagrid’s Hut. 

Carter hadn’t personally met Hagrid yet but wasn’t afraid to admit that he didn’t exactly trust the groundskeeper and was more than a little intimidated by his big size. Carter himself wasn’t that tall, to begin with, and Hagrid seemed to make people much more aware of his small stature. He’d been called a twink far too many times for his liking.

Lara finally sat down, in the snow no less, but didn’t release him. He shifted so he was sitting upright but her arms were still wrapped around his, preventing him from darting back inside.

He scowled, “wanna tell me why you decided to kidnap me from my common room? I was perfectly content sitting there and reading.”

“You’ve been inside for all of the break. I get that almost everybody’s gone and you don’t feel pressured to actually be social now, but I can’t remember the last time that I saw you willingly leave without anybody dragging you out of your room.” Lara rolled her eyes in annoyance. 

“Nobody’s been dragging me out of my room,” Carter said. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he went outside of his dormitory except for- oh.

Lara saw the moment the realization dawned on him and sighed. Whether with amusement or just plain exhaustion - he couldn’t tell. 

“But there's nothing to do out here!” He whined. “All there is snow, who likes the snow? Well, I guess that Copper likes the snow but he’s generally excited about pretty much anything, but I don’t like the snow.”

“Copper? That’s Rowan Copper, right? One of your roommates?” Lara asked.

“Yep,” Carter replied, popping the ‘p’, “he’s the one who’s hopelessly in love with Firethron.”

“If I remember correctly that’s Beatrice Firethron?” Lara snapped her fingers like it would get her to remember Vincent’s name.

“No, that’s his sister. She’s Gryffindor. The Firethron I’m talking about is Vincent,” Carter corrected.

“Ah, right. And both Firethron and Copper are your roommates.” Carter nodded. “Yikes, that must be awkward,” Lara chuckled.

“You would not believe it!” Lara had let go of him now, but he made no move to leave. Instead, he threw his hands up in exasperation. “Micheal and I just have to sit there and watch as they give each other hardcore ‘fuck me’ eyes! More than once Micheal had suggested we Imperio them to kiss.”

“Ah, I love this kind of drama,” Lara sighed dreamily, winking at Carter.

“We’re twelve, we should not be giving each other ‘fuck me’ eyes. I do not want that for my roommates considering I sleep in the same room,” Carter said blandly.

“Tell that to Sequiera,” Lara giggled.

“Merlin, does everybody know about that?!” Carter buried his face into his hands. 

“Carter, you look like a lovesick puppy whenever you look at her, it’s pretty obvious.” 

Carter felt his face grow hotter and he grumbled unintelligibly. Lara laughed beside him and he shoved his hands down just to glare at her. His face felt like a furnace against the biting cold air. 

“Oh jeez, you’re bright red. Consider joining Gryffindor?” Lara joked. Carter shoved her into the snow with a pout. 

“I’m not here to be made fun of! If you’re gonna tease me I’m gonna leave!” 

Lara smiled and sat back up, wiping the extra snow off her cloak and tie. “You’re the one who brought up Rowan being in love with Vincent.”

“That doesn’t mean I wanted you to bring up my love life!” Carter whined. Lara smothered a laugh with her hand, looking at Carter with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Uh, Christmas? Christmas is coming up, everybody loves Christmas.”

Lara shifted uncomfortably, “I don’t really do Christmas.”

“Oh, so you’re Jewish or...?”

“No, I’m not religious, I just don’t celebrate Christmas. Never really got it, to be honest.”

“I hope this doesn’t mean you don’t want any presents because I am one hundred percent getting you a present.” He frowned.

“I’m fine with presents, I just don’t really like the over-the-top stuff like the whole holiday spirit thing.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“But I really like Christmas music. More specifically, muggle Christmas music.”

“I’ve never heard muggle Christmas music,” Carter said, tilting his head to the side. “What’s it like?”

Carter was abruptly yanked to his feet by Lara, making him stumble. “You’re gonna love it!” Lara grinned.


	17. Noisy Fifth-years

Christmas break was slowly coming to an end and students had started trickling back into the library so they could get the homework they didn’t do over the break done. Carter was not one of those students. He had nothing better to do over the break than to work on homework, so he got all his homework done.

The late-night hangouts with Lara helped, too. Already they had somewhat perfected Accio (he still gets hit in the face sometimes) and mastered all of their Defense Against the Dark Arts spells, which Lara was better at. Carter had personally learned all of the Charms for this year and was in the process of teaching them to Lara, but she seemed determined to fail all of them just to upset him personally. Which, first of all, rude, but secondly, kinda funny. 

“I’ll start trying with Charms when you stop being a hermit,” she had said.

“Well, then I’ll guess you’ll never try,” he had replied. Lara had jinxed him after that comment. 

Right now, he was trying to ignore the loud fifth-year students who had been in the library for days now, trying to read a muggle book Kali had sent for Christmas. It was surprisingly dark and he found himself enjoying it. 

Kali and Kyla had sent a joint gift for Christmas because their families were spending Christmas together. It was a bunch of muggle stuff they thought he would like. Kali sent some books, Kyla sent some candy, and Kali’s mother had sent a very soft sweater. Packaged with the sweater was a thank you card from both Kali’s parents, thanking him for being Kali’s friend.

He had sent a broomstick for Kali (she always mentioned how she really liked Quidditch), some obscure wizard candy that they didn’t sell on the trolley to Kyla, and a letter saying that he was glad to be her friend to Kali’s parents. Kali sent her owl, Brilla, to him with a letter telling him to stop sucking up to her parents.

He sent Brilla back with a broom care kit to try and suck up to her. It worked.

He had also gotten Lara a fancy Hufflepuff scarf to which she nearly cried when she saw it, thanking him profusely. It was a good day. 

The loud talking coming from the fifth-years was hard to ignore and he had to fight himself to not march over there and set one of their robes on fire. 

“Annoying, right?” Kimi sat down next to him. He jumped slightly before turning to look at them.

“When did you get here?” He asked. As far as he knew, Kimi had gone to stay with their folks over the break. Hell, that’s what they told him.

“Came back early, just got back yesterday,” Kimi replied. 

“Oh,” he said, “did you get my present?” He had sent Kimi some funky socks he had ordered from a newspaper and personally, he thought they were amazing.

“I love them,” Kimi grinned, rolling up their pants to reveal the socks just barely visible from beneath the shoe. “I’m sorry I didn’t get you a present, but I’m unfortunately broke.”

“Hah, loser,” he snorted, closing his book after putting a bookmark in.

Kimi leaned over with interest, “Lord of the Flies, really?”

“Kali sent it.” Carter shrugged, stuffing it into his bag. “It’s interesting, I guess.”

“Heard it was about murder and anarchy.”

“Yeah, basically,” Carter mused, leaning onto the desk. 

“Hell yeah, stick it to the man!” Kimi fist-bumped the air. They leaned back in their chair, crossing their arms. “Could you spare a little money for a poor little snake?”

Carter narrowed his eyes, placing his head in his hand with an unimpressed look. 

“Sure, I’ll also pay off any debts you have because apparently, I have money for days.”

“Your family is rich,” Kimi said.

“Tell that to a single mother with three kids. Plus, just because the family is rich doesn’t mean I’m rich.”

Kimi tilted their head to the side with a pleading look. Goddammit, puppy dog eyes. Grumbling, Carter pulled out two galleons. Kimi’s eyes widened.

“I was sorta joking, mate. I was hoping you had a knut to spare, not two bloody galleons!” 

“As you said, my family’s rich,” Carter smirked.

“You little weasel!” Kimi took the galleons with a grin and messed with them in their hands, probably checking if they were real. They were, in fact, real galleons, and Carter watched as they played with the galleons in their hands before putting them in their front pocket. “You’re amazing.”

“I know,” Carter said.

“Anyways, mind working on homework with me?”

“I already got my homework done.”

Kimi shifted in their seat, “you spent Christmas break doing homework? Lame.”

“Well it’s not like I had any of you guys to keep me company,” Carter scoffed, “last time I checked, you were in Brazil for Christmas break.”

“Don’t knock Brazil!” Kimi swatted at his shoulder.

“I’m not! Just factually stating where you were. It’s not my fault you weren’t here and instead of getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.”

“Again, don’t know Brazil! Also, didn’t you have Hufflepuff with you?”

“Why do you guys insist on calling her that? First Kali, then you. Even Kyla started calling her that! She has a name.”

“It’s easier,” Kimi said with a shrug. “Anyways, you never answered my question.”

“Yes, Lara was here over the break,” Carter relented, rolling his eyes.

“See! Not totally alone! Don’t be dramatic.” For some reason, Kimi sounded like a scolding mother. They sort of were, in a way.

“Oh woe is me, I only have one friend to terrorize over the break.” Carter laid a hand over his forehead, shutting his eyes with fake anguish.

“Ever consider becoming an actor?” Kimi deadpanned.

“Everyday,” Carter beamed. Kimi snorted and whacked him upside the head, causing him to drop his act. He rubbed the back of his head with a glare.

“Why did you do that?”

“Could’ve been Gryffindor with how dramatic you are,” Kimi said.

Carter placed a hand over his chest, offended. “How dare you!” He exclaimed with a sharp gasp.

Kimi raised an eyebrow and gestured to all of him with a challenging look of: Am I Wrong? They were wrong, Carter pouted.

“You’re pouting.”

“So?”

Kimi stared at him for a couple of moments before sighing and shaking their head, turning to the parchment he hadn’t noticed them take out. Probably because he wasn’t paying attention, oops. 

“Are you gonna help me or not?”

“Help you with your second-year homework?” Carter asked.

“Yeah, you have a problem with that?”

“No. No, not really.”


	18. Do You Wanna Be an Animagus?

“Do you guys ever want to become an animagus?

Carter looked up from where he was sitting, hunched over a sketchbook. All of them - Lara, him, Kali, Kyla, and Kimi - had journeyed outside to sit around, the snow finally melting away. There were still traces of what had been a winter wonderland, but a lot of it was mushy and had a brown tint from the dirt it sat on. The lake had frozen over at one point, an impressive feat which had shown how cold this winter was, but it was now unfrozen, the water still chilly. 

It was actually Carter’s idea to sit outside in the sun next to both the Forbidden Forest and the lake. It felt like forever since they went into the forest. Kali and Kyla had wanted to stay inside, but Kimi managed to convince both of them with snacks to come out with him and Lara. One would think Kimi would be running low on smuggled candy but the not-so-recent trip to Hogsmeade only gave them more. One Gryffindor lad had snuck a literal mountain of candy to them for Valentines' Day, which resulted in a highly amusing friend-zone from Kimi, in Carter’s opinion at least. Kimi found it morbidly embarrassing.

Kali and Kyla, the vampires that they were, immediately sought shelter from the sun, which was weird because it was the only source of heat on a cold day and you actually need Vitamin D guys, you can’t rely on oranges for your entire life. 

So now, they were sat under a large tree that had not one, not two, but three carvings in it of letter plus another letter that was definitely supposed to be couples. Which, not cool, you two (six, actually) ruined a perfectly good tree.

Carter had brought along a sketchbook he took out of the Room of Requirement, Lara had brought Transfiguration homework which was hilariously due tomorrow, Kali brought a book, Kyla also brought a book, and Kimi for some reason brought a yo-yo.

Carter hadn’t known what a yo-yo was before Kimi had shown it to him and now he was outraged at his mother for never getting him one. Those things could entertain you for hours and his parents never even considered it? They existed in the wizarding world apparently, but he had never seen one before Kimi flipped their shit when they heard he didn’t know what it was.

So now, here they were, sat under a tall willow tree, just doing their own thing when Kimi hits them with this question.

“An animagus?” Kyla asked curiously.

“Y’know, like Professor McGonagall? With how she can turn into a cat?” Kimi prompted.

“I don’t know, probably not,” Lara said, putting her quill down.

“If I did, which is a big if, it’d probably be based on what my Patronus looks like,” Kali replied. Lara nodded in agreement.

“That would be a problem if your Patronus was aquatic,” Carter pointed out. Hint hint, Lara. He’s not giving up the hunch that her Patronus is a dolphin. He feels it in his bones, just like how he feels them whittling away because he doesn’t drink milk. Apparently, milk was good for your bones, but he wouldn’t know that considering he doesn’t drink milk. 

Now that he thinks about it, he’s never broken a bone and some people who have drank milk have broken a bone. Does milk make your bones weaker? Does he have bones of steel? 

“Carter, are you even listening to me?” Kimi snapped. He blinked and blushed before silently shaking his head. Kimi rolled their eyes.

“As I was saying, I wanna be an animagus. But I don’t want it to be known so I can terrorize people as an, I dunno, a dog or something.”

“Telling us about kinda goes against the whole ‘I don’t want it to be known’ thing,” Kyla said dryly. Kimi scowled and played with their yo-yo more.

“Isn’t that illegal?” Lara asked. “For nobody to know? Doesn’t the ministry have to know?”

“Nothings illegal if you don’t get caught,” Carter responded. 

“No, it’s definitely still illegal,” Lara frowned.

“Besides terrorizing people, what purpose would being an animagus do?” Kyla asked.

“Get out of class? Sorry Professor Snape, but as you can see, I’m a cat. Can’t come into class today,” Kali suggested.

“He’d find some way to turn you back,” Kimi said.

“My ass he would,” Kali laughed.

“That’s not a lot of ass to bet on,” Carter mused.

“You little-“ Kali tried to lunge at him but was blocked by Lara sitting up fully in between them instead of leaning against the tree. Carter snickered behind a hand.

“I would like to be a cat,” Kyla said, resting her hand on her hand, looking at the castle with some consideration. 

“Again, without the ministry knowing it would be illegal,” Lara pointed out.

“Screw the ministry! Overthrow the old people!” Carter declared. Lara pushed him down as he tried to stand up.

“I give you that book and you immediately convert to anarchy. I cannot explain how proud I am.” Kali threw up her hands in a v for victory pose. 

“The government is full of lizard people!”

“That’s a- wait what did you say?” Kali stared at him dumbly. Everybody else was now looking at him with varying levels of confusion.

“Oh,” Carter smiled sheepishly, “It’s something my old friend said. She was an American pureblood living in London for a couple of years, but she had to move back to America to attend Ilvermorny.”

“American? Strange accent, right?” Kimi asked. “Never met an American before.”

“Terribly strange accent,” Carter agreed, “but I managed to get her to say some things the British way before she left. The day she started saying scenario the proper way was the best day of my life.”

“Bet her parents were mighty confused,” Lara said.

“Oh, you’d never believe it,” Carter grinned. 

“Lizard people? Did she really believe that?” Kyla asked incredulously.

“Have you seen the ministry?” Kali scoffed. “I’d bet the American government is even worse. Wouldn’t be surprised if they were all snakes in disguise. Slippery things, snakes.”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment,” Kimi said. 

“Take it as one,” Kali replied. 

“I think we veered off-topic.” Kyla leaned over to look at the full group. 

“Carter’s fault!” Kali said. Carter whipped his head toward Kali. 

“What?!”

“You are the one that started talking about lizard people,” Kimi muttered. Carter sputtered in response. 

“Well, to answer the question, no,” Lara said with finality.

“No,” Kali said.

“Nope,” Kyla agreed.

“Maybe if my Patronus is cool,” Carter confessed.

“Totally would if I took the time to put in the work, but, alas, I am lazy,” Kimi sighed. Everybody laughed quietly, sat under the tree.

It was the first time in a while they had all gotten together and just sat down and talked. It was nice, Carter concluded. They were all nice. His friends. He liked having friends.

And for the first time in his life, he was sure his friends liked him, too. 

He laughed brightly as Kali snatched his sketchbook out of his hands to grab his attention.


	19. Saying Goodbye (For Now)

Once again, he watched as his roommates prepared to leave. Vincent and Rowan were hugging while Micheal watched Carter stare at his luggage. He suddenly realized that he didn’t want to leave.

Hogwarts felt more like home than the manor ever did. Here, he had friends, people who cared deeply for him. Maybe it was because he had spent a year straight here, but the manor seemed so distant, so different in his memories. Hogwarts was the new constant, gone was the dusty library only he used, gone were the jerk siblings, gone was Jim. 

He didn’t wanna go back to the manor. He didn’t think it was home anymore.

“You okay, Laffitte?” Micheal asked, leaning against one of the bed frames on Carter’s bed, his eyebrows creased in worry. Carter looked up and smiled tightly.

“I’m fine,” he said. 

Micheal nodded, but it was clear he didn’t believe him. At least he cared. Any longer in that hug, he was sure Vincent and Rowan would start making out and he did not wanna be around to witness that. 

“You guys have any plans for the summer?” Rowan asked, finally pulling away. Micheal shrugged.

“My family always goes on vacation, not looking forward to it, though. Arie’s gonna slaughter me with questions.”

“She’s your little sister, right? Nine years old? The one that almost sent you a howler because you got Ravenclaw?” Rowan sat on his bed.

“‘You got the nerd house, I’m gonna get the brave one’,” Micheal mocked in a high-pitched voice, “that’s her, alright. Complete rubbish if you ask me, she’s definitely gonna get Slytherin.”

Vincent crossed his arms, “yeah, we’ve heard you say that before.”

“I’m only saying it because I’m right!” Micheal replied hotly.

“Because you’re right? No wonder you got Ravenclaw,” Carter muttered with a smirk.

“Oi!” Micheal said over Rowan’s and Vincent’s laughter. 

“You guys will write, right?” Rowan finally asked once the room had quieted down. 

“Of course, Copper,” Micheal reassured. Carter nodded and Rowan grinned. He turned to Vincent and Firethron raised an eyebrow as if asking him if he even needed to ask. Rowan fist-pumped the air and went back to packing.

Carter stared at his half-packed suitcase and sighed, closing it. He could finish packing later, it was only eleven in the morning. He had time.

Shoving his wand into his back pocket, Carter opened the door and walked down the staircase. There were kids wandering around the common room, some looking at books, others just saying goodbye to their friends. Kali and Kyla were down there, too. The two of them were sitting on the couches, watching the older kids sluggishly tell their friends how much they’ll miss them.

He joined them on the couches, sitting next to Kali while Kyla was on the armchair next to them. 

“Gave up on packing?” Kali asked.

“Gonna stay here,” Carter said. “I’ll hide out in the cupboards until the train leaves and then live here for the summer. The house-elves like me enough, they’ll bring me food.”

“Professor Flitwick would find you eventually,” Kyla said.

“And I’ll kick him. He’s like half my size, what’s he gonna do?”

Kali snorted and rolled her eyes. Kyla tapped her chin as if considering it. 

“Write to me, Carter,” Kali said, practically ordering him. “I’ll be on vacation to the states over the summer, so I’ll send you lot some postcards.”

“Where are you heading to?” Kyla asked.

“Around the country,” Kali waved a hand, “no place in particular. New York, Los Angelos, the works. We’re stopping in Texas for a while, visiting grandparents on my dad’s side.”

“Dad’s side is a muggle, right?”

“Yep, grandparents had a good freakout when my dad told them, not before my dad did, though.”

“Real shock to him, ain’t it?” Carter cocked his head to the side. He didn’t have anything to compare it to, but he could imagine somebody’s reaction.

“Both of my parents are muggles. Didn’t believe the letters at first. Couldn’t even find platform nine and 3/4, almost missed the train even though we were supposed to be ten minutes early,” Kyla said. 

“Hopefully you’ll have more luck next year,” Carter said.

“Can you really even say next year? We have, like, a day left here at Hogwarts. More accurate would be after the summer,” Kali pointed out.

“Shut up.”

Kali snickered behind a hand while Kyla shifted in her seat, smiling at the ceiling.

“Any plans, Carter?” 

“Cry,” Carter deadpanned.

“Same.”

Kyla laughed aloud. Carter smiled, he was going to miss this.


	20. Train Time...Again

“If you eat any more candy, I think I might puke for you,” Lara said, covering her mouth as Kimi ate more chocolate.

The three of them were sat in a train car on the way back from Hogwarts. The train car couldn’t fit all five of them, so Kali and Kyla had decided to sit with some other kids in the train car behind them. Kimi was currently eating as much of their hoard of candy that they could while Lara and Carter looked on in disgust and intrigue respectively. Carter, currently, was sitting upside down because screw the rules. Was there a rule against sitting upside down in the train cars? He should ask.

“Do it then, coward,” Kimi glared.

“If you really want to be fat, you could’ve just asked me. I know some potions,” Carter said.

“Bloating potions?” Kimi asked. Carter nodded, but it was hard to when his entire head was upside down. Kimi understood what he meant, though. “Bloating potions are second-year potions, how do you know them?” 

“I had some free time,” Carter shrugged. He glanced at Lara and she shrugged back. 

“Free time to learn new potions?” Kimi repeated.

“What, don’t you do that in your free time? Lara and I have already begun practicing some of the harder second-year spells.”

“Unlike you, Carter I have better things to do in my free time.”

“Like eat mountains of chocolate?” Lara asked incredulously.

“Precisely.”

“A lot of people like candy, but not that much,” Lara noted.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to finish that all? I’m pretty sure you said that your parents would murder you if they found you sneaking candy.” Carter pushed himself upright.

Kimi looked sadly at the candy then turned to them. “Think you guys could help?”

Lara looked at Carter. Carter pursed his lips.

“Hand me those chocolate frogs.”

“What is it with you and chocolate frogs?” Lara asked as she handed him the frogs.

“I never had any before Hogwarts,” Carter said as he tore open the packaging and bit into the chocolate. “You can’t really say anything, you’re obsessed with their pumpkin pastries.”

“The pumpkin pastries taste good!” Lara retorted, biting into a licorice wand. “Unlike your slimy frogs.”

“You’re just upset that the magic wears off before you get to eat them,” Carter responded, not looking up as he checked his card. Kimi snickered behind a sugar quill. 

The pile of candy had reduced somewhat by the time they arrived at the station. There was still a noticeable pile, but the efforts of three sugar-starved kids (well, Lara and Carter were sugar-starved, Kimi not so much) didn’t go unnoticed. 

Kimi pouted as they gathered their candy into their luggage hurriedly, Lara turning to Carter as he stood up. She placed a hand on his arm as he pulled his suitcase down. He looked at her.

“Write to me, okay? Don’t suffocate in the manor’s library.”

“You’re the third person to make me promise to write,” Carter snorted, but he also smiled comfortingly, letting her know subtly that he would write. She brightened and helped him get his luggage down. 

He waved at her as he got off the train. She waved back. Then, they both went their separate ways.

“Hello, Carter!” His mom patted his shoulder. “Look at you, my little Ravenclaw. How was school?”

“It was good,” Carter said. He looked back at where he had said goodbye to Lara.

“I can’t wait to go back.” 

He wasn’t lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thats the first year done! 
> 
> Edit: not gonna take a hiatus because I enjoy writing these :)


End file.
